Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 3 takeaways from 2019 NFL Draft class

3. Little offense selected, but will this kicker pay off?

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have had nine kickers since cutting Matt Bryant in 2008, and rather ironically, if you point to the Bucs biggest position of weakness over the last decade, it would be the place kicker. The Bucs have tried seemingly everything: signing veterans with success elsewhere, holding kicking competitions and even the 2016 blunder of trading up to draft Roberto Aguayo in the second round, all with the same failing result.

Jason Licht and the Bucs are betting on the 10th kicker after Bryant to be the one that finally gives them stability at the kicker position. Matt Gay, a 25-year-old former Lou Groza winner from the University of Utah, was selected with the 145th pick in the fifth round. The pick comes just three years after the Aguayo pick and will not comfort Bucs fans, especially by investing another draft pick on a kicker.

Gay is hopefully different though. He was 16/16 on field goals 40+yards and 10/15 (three were blocked) from 50+yards. He won the best kicker award in 2017 and was a finalist in 2018, although that amounts for little in the NFL. Aguayo was the third most accurate kicker in NCAA history but fell apart at the pro level.

However, Jason Licht doubled down on the importance of the kicker position and stated that Aguayo had no factor in this selection. Kicking woes cost the Bucs plenty of games over the past couple seasons, so we will see if Matt Gay can give Licht the kicker he hoped to draft in 2016 in a position that remains important, especially with the extra point distance being pushed back in recent years.