Day 1 of OTAs was yesterday, May 22nd, and the kickers came out banging footballs through the uprights.
Tampa, in the past three years, has been plagued by issues with kickers missing FGs and extra points, resulting in losses. Many times we’ve lost games, and not blaming the kickers, but if they would have made those missed kicks, we would have won.
Tampa has not been able to find a kicker that you could call somewhat consistent since both Barth and Murray graced One Buc Place.
During the offseason, the Buccaneers signed longtime Cardinals and last year’s Jet’s kicker, Chandler Catanzaro. Stat wise, he leaves us with little to desire as his stats are too similar to our last few better kickers, However, this season may prove to be quite different.
Tampa also signed undrafted free agent kicker Trevor Moore out of North Texas, and between Catanzaro and Moore, we may have found a solution to our kicking woes.
As per usual, Day 1 of OTAs started out great with Catanzaro nailing all 5 of his kicks and Moore hitting 4 out of 5. Typical start to OTAs for the kicking guys, as we have all heard this kind of story before, however, fingers crossed that Tampa has finally found an answer to the kicking debacle that has plagued us for the last few seasons. If not, both Barth and Murray are free agents eagerly awaiting a phone call.
