FSU Alums: Roberto Aguayo falls from glory after being cut by Bucs

Roberto Aguayo was arguably the best kicker in all of football, college or pro, just four years ago – now, he’s out of a job after being cut.

The season was 2013 and FSU football was breaking in a new kicker as redshirt freshman Roberto Aguayo was taking the field for the first time. 14 games later, he was the Lou Groza Award winner and considered maybe the best kicker at any level of football when he hit all 94 extra points and made 21 of 22 field goal attempts during the season.

After three seasons in Tallahassee – in which he missed a total of nine kicks, all field goals, during his time – Aguayo was off to the NFL. Of course, he wasn’t just an after thought picked in the later rounds. Nope, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers traded up into the second round to select the man who grew up less than 100 miles away to be Mr. Automatic inside Raymond James Stadium.

Counting preseason contests, he is out of a job after 21 games.

Saturday, after missing two kicks in the preseason opener against Cincinnati – including an extra point that went off the goal post – Roberto Aguayo became the former kicker for the Bucs as the team released him. After missing 11 kicks last season, including two extra points and having a season long of just 43 yards, the team had decided they had seen enough.

So how did a player who was the best at his position fall so quickly?

As we wrote about earlier this summer, the Buccaneers had made it very clear that he was on thin ice after all the heat and criticism the team took for trading to draft a kicker in the second round. Veteran NFL kicker Nick Folk was brought in to challenge Aguayo – and it seems he won.

Roberto Aguayo knew the spotlight was going to be on him because of both his success at Florida State and the circumstances that surrounded his draft pick. Missing an extra point in the 2016 preseason opener and two field goal attempts the following weekend didn’t exactly help things.

Going four for eight on field goal attempts in the first five games last season didn’t help his case, even with one of those being a game winner over Carolina. Credit should be given for him missing just five attempts over the final 11 games – but when you are the second round pick, that’s still not good enough.

In all likelihood, Roberto Aguayo will get another job in the NFL as the preseason goes on and teams look for someone to fill in due to injuries or when another kicker can’t get the job done. However, he is going to have plenty of work ahead to get rid of the stench of being a kicker picked in the second round who couldn’t make it to a second regular season.

UPDATE: ESPN.com is reporting that Aguayo has agreed to a deal with the Chicago Bears, where he will compete for the starting spot. If he remains on the team, he would get a chance to face the Bucs as the teams play in Week Two.

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