When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers used a second round pick in the 2016 NFL Draft to select Roberto Aguayo, a Kicker out of Florida State, Licht and the Buccaneers Front Office got ripped for the pick by many analysts and countless fans. To make matters worse, Tampa even traded up to acquire Aguayo, a player who would most likely still have been available late in the fourth round.
Roberto Aguayo had a terrible start to his NFL career, which made the Bucs look really stupid for picking a Kicker in the second round. As the season went on, Aguayo fared slightly better, but still was not able to live up to the high standards that come with a Kicker being picked that early.
This offseason, Licht brought in some competition at the position, acquiring the experienced veteran Nick Folk. The signing is most likely supposed to motivate Aguayo and show him to not take his job for granted. It is still Aguayo’s job to lose, obviously. However, if he keeps on missing easy Field Goals, he could soon be Folk’s backup or even get cut.
However, former Seminoles Kicker Sebastian Janikowski, for instance, had a bad Rookie year as well. He has been one of the better Kickers in the league for years now. Hopefully, Aguayo can have a similar career and really kickstart his NFL stint in his sophomore year!
