Tampa, Home To Rotten Kickers
September 25th, 2019
“Hi Bucs fans!”
The Bucs used to be famous for a couple of things in the NFL:
Bad quarterbacks, impotent offense and cool uniforms.
Now? Tampa Bay is hell on kickers. Or shall we say kickers have been hell on Bucs fans.
Greg Auman of The Athletic decided to research kicking and kickers since 2015. It should come as no surprise that the Bucs — Joe’s trying to be polite — struggle with kickers.
To be blunt, the Bucs suck with kickers.
In fact, no NFL team has had worse luck since 2015, Auman found, and it is not even close.
Worst field-goal percentage, 2015-19:
Bucs 73.0 percent
Chargers 77.5
Bears 79.2
Browns 80.7
Raiders 81.2
(NFL best: 49ers, 91.6)— Greg Auman (@gregauman) September 24, 2019
Now this may come as a surprise to Bucs fans, but teams have sort of prototypes of players they look for at each position. These are based on all sorts of things, such as ability, physicality, mental makeup, you name it.
It’s not like Bucs suits go old school like internationally popular JoeBucFan.com columnist Ira Kaufman at a fantasy draft at Hooters, when he rolls up to a grocery store on his way to the draft and picks up a Street and Smith or Athlon fantasy magazine. (Though would anyone be surprised if the Bucs chose kickers in this method?)
So some friendly advice from a novice on the outside looking in: Whatever file, Bucs suits, that you have where you keep the key attributes of a desired kicker, just go delete that file and start from scratch. Maybe troll a local college kid to hack into the Belicheats’ network and lift their kickers’ notes. Whatever file the Bucs have on identifying kickers doesn’t appear to be working and if Gay fails, that will further prove it.
To add insult to injury? Team Glazer is paying six-figures to now have a full-time kicking coach to help a kicker struggle. (Assistants salaries are rarely made public, just based on a database from USA Today of college assistants’ salaries, Joe cannot imagine any full-time NFL assistant getting paid less than $100,000.)
Good morning!
September 25th, 2019 at 9:02 am
Well, we still have the bad quarterbacks, but not the cool uniforms.
September 25th, 2019 at 9:07 am
Tampa is far more than just rotten kickers, backups labled as legends, worst winning percentage in sports, basement title leaders….. Tampa is just f$$$ing rotten across the board no need to pile on or limited to kickers
September 25th, 2019 at 9:11 am
Isn’t it lame that we can’t even get a dependable kicker? People make so many excuses for this teams failures. I just dont understand the be patient mindsets. We have freaking been patient over a decade. Enough is enough. Jeesh!
September 25th, 2019 at 9:12 am
Off subject but as home team we select the uniforms….can anyone tell me why we chose the red (dark) for our first two games giving our opponents the white,
The conventional wisdom is that the dark retains the heat. Have I missed the news about this?…….Inquiring minds want to know….
September 25th, 2019 at 9:14 am
So, here is my opinion. Give them one season to get proficient with Arians system. However all of the mistakes made by coaching is unacceptable. How can BA expect his players to perform when he clearly has forgotten how to coach?
September 25th, 2019 at 9:20 am
This team is so unpredictable that it would not surprise me if they squeek out a win in LA. The Bucs can’t win at home or beat teams they are expected to beat. So why not win road games against a team expected to beat them? Very weird team we have here.
September 25th, 2019 at 9:23 am
Gay missed a big luck yes. Get over it gang. The kid can still luck at an NFL quality. BA didn’t do him any favors either.
JPP restructured his contract to save us $$$ and be a free agent next year. Need a column on that.
Oh..and Peyton Manning is putting word out he wants to run an NFL front office now that Eli is done. Glazers NEED to back up the Brinks truck right NOW for him now. Let him can Light at end of year, pick his own GM in 2020. Need a column on that…too.
September 25th, 2019 at 9:24 am
*big kick
September 25th, 2019 at 9:27 am
I would love to have Peyton Manning running team management here. He has always succeeded in all of his roles. Can’t do worse than our past couple GM hires.
September 25th, 2019 at 9:28 am
Gay kicks like Wyoming spells “luck”
September 25th, 2019 at 9:42 am
Gay will be fine, hopefully. There is a bad mojo about that stadium man. Dunno what it is but its cursed.
September 25th, 2019 at 9:57 am
Aguayo missed chip shot kicks and everyone wanted to roast him. Gay misses them and everyone says it’s no big deal. You all realize his name is Gay. He is not. It’s OK to bash him for his failures. No PC police are going to arrest you for speaking the truth. He has a problem with short distance kicks. It wasn’t just an off day. He is what he is, a big leg long distance kicker but I think he will be needed for short range kicks and extra points far more often than a rare 60 yarder. It’s not his fault though, it is Gump and BA fault for picking him in the draft. If he was not a draft pick, Santos would have had the job.
September 25th, 2019 at 9:59 am
I have a nephew in high school in Texas that can kick better than Gay. He was the #1 kicker at the IMG Academy this year. He is very accurate from 50+ but he’s only a junior.
He hasn’t missed this year.
I don’t know where he’s going to play in college but it certainly won’t be Utah or for the Upper Central Northern Michugan Fukawi’s.
September 25th, 2019 at 10:04 am
It’s looking like this is where dreams die. You can be all you can be as you were told as child. Dreams playing in the NFL die when the Tampa calls their name on Draft Day.
Evan Engram is looks like a better player than OJ
September 25th, 2019 at 10:05 am
Gay is the focus and our history is so rotten that we are all very upset. Understandable.
Gay missed a huge kick…BA missed a huge call on the kick that Gay made that gave Giants a chance instead of going for the jugular when they had that chance at the five needing two yards for a first.
Some coach…Bowles? totally messed up leaving the QB wide open for the winning TD…after we saw his speed and how he humiliated our DB’s on that end run for his first TD somebody surely should have been spying him.
JW “SOMETIMES”…appears to be choking. Played decently the first half and then looked like a deer in the headlights in the 2nd half. Sometimes he just makes bad decisions…sometimes I question his view of the field…but those ints in Cincy and that second half int against are just inexplicable. You end up saying well that’s just JW.
I thought both lines played decently and the running backs were OK. Didn’t see the cheerleaders…perhaps they sucked as well. We know the uniforms sucked.
And speaking of that…I second TBBF’s question. Why have we decided to change normal protocol and force the visitors to play hot afternoons in the dark jerseys instead of white.
September 25th, 2019 at 10:20 am
SPBF, all of your points are valid. I went back and watched the blocked XP and it looks like the balls trajectory was too low which would be on the kicker. The Giants player who blocked it did not even jump, he just put his arm up which happens on every FG/XP. I also watched the Giants 36 yard FG because it was a close comparison to an XP and the trajectory was much higher. As many things that caused or contributed to this painful loss, if Gay just makes the XP’s, we have a much better chance because the Giants with a TD and 2 point try could only tie the game and who knows what would have happened in OT.
September 25th, 2019 at 10:39 am
TBBF…….We wear the red jerseys because they look tougher. We are going for the psychological advantage instead of the physical advantage this year. So far it hasn’t worked.
September 25th, 2019 at 10:40 am
Peyton Manning associates with winning. He ain’t coming here. For what? Fans don’t even go to their games unless it’s conditional. Even a free concert didn’t work. Free tickets don’t work……
September 25th, 2019 at 10:48 am
@Jimmy
That answers that…..we look tougher……but hotter…..
I thought it was us being courteous to our opponents…..or….perhaps we thought at Ray Jay….this was going to be a Giants home game….so they get the white uniforms.
September 25th, 2019 at 10:49 am
StPete…….Are we so sure that Bowles is fully to blame for that last TD play?
That was such a stupid defensive allignment. I gotta wonder if their was a blown assignment on that or if our QB of the defense did not properly relay the call to his teammates. All week I have been tortured wondering if perhaps if Devin White were in there if he could have stopped that run…..or if he would have set the defense better.
There were also a lot of other plays I wonder if he would of made a difference…….like that QB run to the sidelines. Do we maybe see Devin’s sideline All-World speed show up there and change our fate?
Whenever I do go back and watch that game on rewind I will follow some of those plays more closely to try and guage it. Right now I am still trying to treat my wounds and will hurt too much to relive those moments.
September 25th, 2019 at 11:01 am
Nothing will change until we as a community fire the Glazers.
The idiot sons are incapable of running a franchise. Why should citizens of this area have to be held hostage to the ineptitude of a couple of trust fund babies?
September 25th, 2019 at 11:05 am
The only way one can get rid of owners that they perceive as bad is to somehow dig up dirt on them where they broke federal laws or were either mean to or told distasteful jokes to employees (like what happened with Jerry Richardson).
But remember, not even creepy Bob Kraft paying for (fill in the blank) with Asian women can get him in hot water with NFL strongman Roger Goodell.
September 25th, 2019 at 11:08 am
@JJ
No I am totally unsure if Bowles was responsible or if a player did not cover his responsibility. Sadly for Bowles he’s the DC so he gets some of the heat…just as BA does as head coach. But you could be totally correct that a player blew an assignment that Bowles had given him.
Rayjay
Agree with you about the kicking game. Nobody should give Gay a pass. But I simply feel blaming it all on Gay is giving too many other culprits in the loss a pass…starting with BA…Bowles…
September 25th, 2019 at 11:34 am
The Bucs used to be famous for a couple of things in the NFL: Cant forget the amount of time it took us to return a kick off for a TD. That went on for over 20 years.
Go Bucs
September 25th, 2019 at 11:35 am
Joe
you are acting like a Handie is a bad thing. I think the old man has a right to a little love….. Second, glazers incompetence especially during the raheem years could definitely be considered fraud by today’s lack of judicial standards. I did read that the kraft scandal may have hurt in call services but out call services are booming!!!! look at mr kraft he’s creating more jobs than Obama could… joe, you need a lap dance sir, getting a little prudish in your old age…
September 25th, 2019 at 11:36 am
jerry and his girls and kraft and his ladies both have one thing glazers clowns dont have and that’s multiple rings not just one lucky year.
September 25th, 2019 at 11:51 am
We should give Ji-Man Choi a workout. Showed decent form coming down the third base line last night after his walk off tater against that other dogass New York franchise
September 25th, 2019 at 12:07 pm
Nice omission of an important fact TMAX
Dallas is the 4th largest metro in the nation…Boston 10th…Tampa 18th.
To put that in perspective for you since facts are clearly not your forte.
Dallas has 7 1/2 million potential fans for Jerry….Tampa St Pete has less than HALF of that at 3 million potential fans for the Glazers.
So if Jerry is not doing at least DOUBLE what the Glazers do he’s behind.
September 25th, 2019 at 12:11 pm
It’s auto-corrects fault @Morgus the Mundane..
September 25th, 2019 at 12:23 pm
Matt Gay is the solution…if people around here had an ounce of patience. We’ll never get a young kicker to work out unless we invest the time.
September 25th, 2019 at 12:23 pm
And clearly bringing in vet kickers isn’t working.
September 25th, 2019 at 12:24 pm
tmaxcon, you are a trolling idiot if you think Tampa’s superbowl was luck. They earned that thing all season long.
September 25th, 2019 at 12:25 pm
Gay should lose the fluorescent shoes and kick barefoot. Although I would love too see them free up a roster spot and let the punter kick field goals. He could do no worse and he booms those kickoffs!
September 25th, 2019 at 12:26 pm
No sh!t!!!
September 25th, 2019 at 12:32 pm
you people so lauhgable…. sheep is too kind…. st pete there is no defending the glazers…
bonzi those washed up one year wonders you worship are sad and pathetic let it go….
September 25th, 2019 at 1:40 pm
Sorry TMAXIPAD you are wrong again like every other comment you post. Even if they did get lucky (they didn’t) there is in no way shape or form they got lucky for 16 games an then add the 2 playoff games an then a super bowl game. You are the one we all are laughing at. Teams get lucky an win Super Bowls hahahahaha now that made my day hahahahaha never have I read a comment so ridiculous in my life TMAXIPAD should get a reward for nonsense of the year.
September 25th, 2019 at 7:46 pm
@#1Bucsfan
I’ve been here quite awhile.
“TMAXIPAD should get a reward for nonsense of the year.”
Actually #1 he won that award for so many consecutive years that it has been retired and presented to him permanently.
September 25th, 2019 at 11:39 pm
Winston has had the worst defense in the league since 2015, and the worst kicking…
But yeah, it’s all on him…