Licht Not Gun-Shy
August 14th, 2017
Learning from kicker pick.
The worst pick of his still young general manager days is now behind him.
But when Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht spoke with California train-romancing, anti-football proliferation, outhouse-admiring, airline-napping, steerage-flying, Yogi Berra-worshiping, urinal picture-taking, video game-playing, Taylor Swift-listening, pickpocket-thwarting, Bucs-uniform-frowning, Allie-LaForce-smitten, Big-Ten-Network-hating, pedestrian-bumping, olive oil-lapping, popcorn-munching, coffee-slurping, fried-chicken-eating, oatmeal-loving, circle-jerking, craft beer-chugging, cricket-watching, scone-loathing, college football-naïve, baseball-box-score-reading, NPR-honk, filthy-hotel-staying, fight-instigating, barista-training Peter King of Sports Illustrated and NBC Sports fame on Saturday, King got the sense that Licht will still be daring in the draft.
When we spoke, I got the impression—through his words and his tone—that he didn’t want the Aguayo pick to make him gun-shy. This is a flame-out, and a big one. Using the 74th and 106th picks to trade up for a kicker who’d been just 71-percent accurate from beyond 40 yards in college. The 74th and 106th picks are team-builders. Licht used the 61st and 124th one year earlier on a couple of players (Ali Marpet, Kwon Alexander) who should be Buc cornerstones for a while.
“Look, I want to digest this for a while,” Licht said. “But this is not going to make me afraid of making bold moves. You can’t make decisions, or not make them, based on fear. I will say that you have to learn from things that didn’t work out. Whatever that is in this case, we’ll figure it out.”
Licht told King he met with winning Bucs coach Dirk Koetter after the preseason game Friday night to discuss what to do with Aguayo. Licht reportedly told Koetter he wanted to sleep on it before rendering a decision.
Joe is reading between the lines here, but if Licht wanted to sleep on it before making a call on whether to fish or cut bait with Aguayo, it seems Koetter already made up his mind. In Koetter’s words, he already had seen enough of that movie.
Licht also told King he had the full support of Team Glazer to waive Aguayo.
August 14th, 2017 at 6:15 am
i have full trust in your personell decision making jason, go licht, go koetter, go bucs
August 14th, 2017 at 6:34 am
Ali Marpet = Roberto Aguayo
Selections which shown a great deal of potential in college.
Licht gamble on both by selecting them at a high draft pick. This is what I love about our GM. He does his homework (speaks quietly) and follows his instinct(carry a big stick).
Ali Marpet is one of his many homeruns.
Aguayo was a grounder to first.
Smart gamblers are the best leaders. They are not led by fear. They are definitely “out of the box.”
Malcolm (the father of the Stick Carriers), Licht, Winston are a few members of The Stick Carrier Nation.
In Licht We Trust!!!
August 14th, 2017 at 6:40 am
Jason Licht is well-known now for bold moves and we should all applaud that … oftentimes you have to risk big to win big. But drafting Roberto with the 74th & 106th player picks doesn’t qualify as a bold move IMO. It’s more of a ‘Jason, what in heaven’s name were you thinking?’ move. Please Jason, stay away from the kickers & long-snappers in the draft.
August 14th, 2017 at 7:18 am
Fortune favors the bold!
August 14th, 2017 at 7:27 am
The Gun Slinger got Shot Down!! Seems to me that cutting the kicker is just a distraction from from the other team woes we seem to have!!! This team better hurry up and get its sh*t together or “winning head coach” will be a one hit wonder!
August 14th, 2017 at 7:36 am
Licht said the right thing…can’t make decisions out of fear. Had no way of knowing RoBearto would be this bad.
August 14th, 2017 at 7:37 am
BigHogHaynes Says:
August 14th, 2017 at 7:27 am
The Gun Slinger got Shot Down!! Seems to me that cutting the kicker is just a distraction from from the other team woes we seem to have!!! This team better hurry up and get its sh*t together or “winning head coach” will be a one hit wonder!
————————————–
lol, every team has woes. Just some more than others. Don’t overreact to preseason.
August 14th, 2017 at 7:38 am
He better watch how he draws so quick… sooner or later he will run out of bullets.
August 14th, 2017 at 7:39 am
One thing we know,the future is brighter than the previous regime.It is mathematically impossible to achieve aqn 8-24 record.
August 14th, 2017 at 7:44 am
Jameis had a lot to do with this pick.
Aguayo has terrible kicking form.
His arms fly UP auand OUT.
Look at Bailey for the Cowboys and Tucker for the Ravens,
their arms are kept tight and in.
They both have soccer player form.
Aguayo has major balance issues because of his ARMS!
August 14th, 2017 at 8:22 am
Winning cures all! If the Bucs win, then all of this will be forgotten and will be part of Bucs lore/trivia. If not, Licht will have to answer to the Glazers.
August 14th, 2017 at 8:24 am
Word on the street was that they would have waited until the 3rd for Aguayo, But NFL GM Jason Licht right hand man Jon Robinson had just went to the Titans and new the game plan!!!!!! ( hence the move to the bottom of the second round!!!!!!)
Good GM’s quickly identify talent!!!!!! Great GM’s identify mistakes quickly and move on!!!!!!!!!!!!! just look at the past gm, who would crowbar his bad draft picks on the roster!!!!!!!! He even had the medical staff fail a good player so his draft pick would get playing time and then promised the coach he was a 10 sack guy!!!!!!!!!!! mark dominik- the worst gm in Buc History!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GO NFL GM Jason Licht!!!!!!!!!!!!
And GO BUCS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
August 14th, 2017 at 8:34 am
@Teacherman: Aguayo has balance issues because he has to use leverage, rather than strength, to get velocity into the ball.
It’s like a golfer who has to overswing to hit the ball solidly, and to do so his body is all over the place resulting in inconsisyency.
I’m OK with the pick of Aguayo, and OK with cutting him. The draft is a crap shoot anyway.
My concern is that nobody in scouting and coaching seems to understand kicking technique and kickers in general. Otherwise, they’d have seen this with Aguayo early on.
You wanna see classic, consistent form? Find old film of Jason Hanson of the Lions. His consistency in form is almost a religious ritual.
August 14th, 2017 at 8:41 am
Phil Krueger was the Buc’s worst GM. Period. Do some research son.
August 14th, 2017 at 8:46 am
It was not bold it was dumb.
But overall he has enough good things going to be ok.
For now…..
August 14th, 2017 at 8:48 am
Jameis had nothing to do with the aguayo pick you ignorant fool… some of you people and your assumptions are absolutely beyond hilarious.
bucs have been throwing away 1st and 2nd round picks for a decade plus so licht missed on ONE- what’s new. he’s hit on way more picks than his missed so far
August 14th, 2017 at 8:52 am
Some things never change: BigHogHaynes still pines for Lovie, and Bob from Valrico still refuses to press the space bar after punctuation. smh
The former I can ALMOST understand, (hatred is powerful) but the latter I really CAN NOT understand. Use the space bar, dude!
August 14th, 2017 at 8:56 am
As much as i try to understand it and justify it its just a dumb pick. For all the good he has done it just sets him back. Although it is an upgrade over dominik so far im not impressed
August 14th, 2017 at 9:03 am
“BigHogHaynes Says:
August 14th, 2017 at 7:27 am
The Gun Slinger got Shot Down!! Seems to me that cutting the kicker is just a distraction from from the other team woes we seem to have!!! ”
Like what? Like 30 others teams in the NFL? You may not be willing to admit it, but, you are still butt hurt about Lovie Smith being fired. You clearly hold Jason Licht somehow responsible.
Bottom line, look at the roster and the the improvement in record. Jason Licht has made the team better since he’s been the GM.
August 14th, 2017 at 9:06 am
No Risk It – No Biscuit
Just keep doing what you are doing Jason Licht.
What sucks is the quality of players that were available at the bottom of the 2nd rd in the 2016 draft. There were still solid Dlinemen on the board which is not usually the case in many drafts. We certainly could have used a young line player who would already be a year into development and ready to contribute by now. Or Vaughn Bell would have looked good wearing red and pewter….
August 14th, 2017 at 9:25 am
it’s funny reading the criticism of Licht. He’s already drafted better OVERALL talent than Dominick and Allen Combined and has drafted better offensively than mckay, allen and dominick combined. The dude is the best thing to happen to this franchise since the Tony Dungy firing. The bucs have always been below average drafting. Wyche had the best draft in franchise history until licht pulled off the grand slam. I rather have a gambler running the show than a conservative scared fool like a dungy or lovie clone.
August 14th, 2017 at 9:34 am
Well he burnt this batch of biscuits
August 14th, 2017 at 9:50 am
Midnight – no just the one – not the whole batch.
Rest of the 2016 draft looks pretty good. Jury is still out on the day 3 picks of Ryan Smith, Benenoch and Bond but all show potential. Hargreaves and Spence were obviously good selections.
2 starters and 3 good prospects is a very solid draft by anyone’s standards.
August 14th, 2017 at 10:13 am
The Ghost of Russell Erxleben! Now there’s an oldie for you guys and the commenters.
August 14th, 2017 at 10:17 am
Hey TMAX…at last we can solidly agree on something my St. Pete brother.
He’s already drafted better OVERALL talent than Dominick and Allen Combined and has drafted better offensively than mckay, allen and dominick combined.
Agree Tmax that Licht’s positives totally outweigh his failures.
BTW all…draft success by round varies by position. There are not enough kickers selected to include them but I found it interesting how position changes the odds in the draft…
For example..in the second round here is the rate of success by position.
2nd Round – OL (70%) LB (55%) TE (50%) WR (49%) DB (46%) QB (27%) DL (26%) RB (25%)
It appears that QB’s…DL..and RB’s are the riskiest draft picks.
It’s and interesting site if you’d like to see the rest of the rounds and methodology….
https://www.arrowheadpride.com/2015/2/20/8072877/what-the-statistics-tell-us-about-the-draft-by-round
August 14th, 2017 at 10:49 am
Agreed with Licht having drafted well overall. He made a mistake, Aguayo’s gone. No need to cover my eyes every time we kick an XP or FG anymore.
August 14th, 2017 at 10:53 am
T-max: only a fool would give up picks to draft a kicker (with a field goal average of 70 percent from 40 yards are more in his college career) in the second round… They call him a gun slinger… But he shooting with a sling-shot!!
August 14th, 2017 at 11:10 am
@BigHog- It was definitely a dumb pick. However, we won’t have to live with it anymore. Lets hope this year’s 2nd rounder comes around. I was not impressed.
August 14th, 2017 at 11:21 am
@ Cobraboy
Very nice explanation of kicking basics. That effort vs strength can be described in all sports I think. Well done.
August 14th, 2017 at 11:53 am
could’ve had vonn bell but we grabbed Roberto….
could’ve had demarcus walker but we grabbed j.evans…
bighog has some valid points….RT still needs to be addressed….rb’s weren’t impressive….lack of quality depth at cb could hurt us this…..seeing Hawley getting pushed back was nothing new and still very concerning….
the great news is that its only preseason game#1….but time is running out….GO BUCS!!!!
August 14th, 2017 at 1:15 pm
@813- I hear you about being preseason. The “1’s” on offense were really the only GROUP that stood out. Maybe some of these guys need to marinate longer.