Advertisement

Buccaneers, with 12 wins past three years, take kicker in 2nd round

Roberto Aguayo better be a really, really good kicker for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Buccaneers have won 4, 7, 4, 2 and 6 games the past five years. There are still a lot of holes on the roster, of course. And Tampa Bay traded a third- and a fourth-round pick to acquire a second-round pick from the Kansas City Chiefs, which it used to take a kicker. Wow.

(AP)
(AP)

Aguayo is the fourth kicker to be drafted in the second round or higher in the past 25 drafts, according to NFL Network. Jason Hanson was a second-round pick in 1992, Sebastian Janikowski was a first-round pick in 2000, Mike Nugent was a second-round pick in 2005, and 11 years after Nugent, Aguayo joins that list. He went 59th overall. And the Buccaneers traded two picks to get it done.

[Yahoo Fantasy Football is open for the 2016 season. Sign up now]

Aguayo is talented. He's one of the best kicker prospects in years. He made 69-of-78 field goals at Florida State, a cool 88.5 percentage. He made all 198 extra-point attempts. He left the Seminoles as the most accurate kicker in NCAA history. He's really good. But a second-round pick could have been used on someone to protect Jameis Winston or rush the quarterback or improve the secondary. And this is a draft that's pretty deep in the second and third rounds. Aguayo would need to play at an All-Pro level for a long career to justify that pick. Perhaps he can.

The Buccaneers have a few needs, and taking a kicker so high is pretty rare. It was certainly an unexpected and interesting pick late in the second round.

- - - - - - -

Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!