Will Bucs Regret Letting Ryan Succop Go?

Bucs general manager Jason Licht knows that good kickers can be hard to find. No position has tormented Licht and the Bucs more than the kicker position over the years.

That’s why the Bucs just might regret getting rid of aging kicker Ryan Succop if Licht can’t make lightning strike twice and find a suitable replacement for the steady leg Tampa Bay has enjoyed over the past three years. Succop turns 36 this year and no longer has the leg strength to be accurate from beyond 47 yards. That’s something head coach Todd Bowles said publicly at the end of the 2022 season.

“Ryan was very efficient this year, but we’ve got to be able to kick longer field goals than we’ve kicked,” Bowles said on his radio show. “I think we’ve got to get past 47 yards, be able to kick from 50, 55 yards as well.”

The stats back Bowles’ claim up. Succop was 29-of-31 (93.5%) on field goals between 20 and 49 yards out, but just 2-of-7 (28.6%) on kicks beyond 50 yards.

But do the five misses from beyond 50 yards outweigh the 29 makes from inside 49 yards? It’s a huge gamble in a season in which Bowles may wind up on the hot seat.

So now Licht will embark on finding Tampa Bay’s 10th kicker in the 10th year of him serving as the Bucs general manager. Here is the chronological order of Tampa Bay’s kickers during Licht’s tenure: Pat Murray (2014), Kyle Brindza (2015), Connor Barth (2015), Roberto Aguayo (2016), Nick Folk (2017) followed by Murray (2017) again, Chandler Catanzaro (2018) and Cairo Santos (2018) and Matt Gay (2019) followed by Succop.

That’s nine kickers in the first seven years before Succop’s three seasons with the Bucs.

That’s not the definition of “not good.”

That’s the definition of “horrific” when it comes to the Bucs’ track record of finding an accurate leg.

Jason Licht Has Drafted 2 Kickers, Might Draft A Third

Two of the kickers the Bucs have had over the last decade were draft picks. Will that prompt Tampa Bay to draft a third one this year to replace Succop?

Licht was widely scorned and ridiculed for trading up in the second round to select Aguayo, who was an All-American and Lou Groza Award winner at Florida State. Aguyao was easily Licht’s worst-ever draft pick. He lasted just one season in Tampa Bay after connecting on only 71% (22-of-43) of his field goals and just 94.1% (32-of-34) of his extra points. Aguayo quickly flamed out of the NFL.

Licht drafted Gay, another Lou Groza Award winner, in the fifth round of the 2019 draft. It turns out he was actually a heck of a draft pick – just not for Tampa Bay. Gay struggled as a rookie, connecting on 77.1% (27-of-35) of his field goals and just 89.6% (43-of-46) of his extra points. Gay missed a game-winner against the Giants and missed several kicks in a season-ending loss to the Falcons.

Licht signed Succop to compete with Gay in camp this next year and the veteran won the job. Succop went on to have a record-setting season with the Bucs in 2020, helping the team win Super Bowl LV. In addition to being perfect in the postseason, Succop broke Martin Gramatica’s franchise record with 136 points. He connected on 28-of-31 (90.8%) field goals and 52-of-57 extra points (91.2%) extra points in 2020.

Meanwhile, Gay signed with the Rams in 2020 and improved to hitting 87.5% of his field goals and connecting on 100% of his extra points. In 2021, Gay helped the Rams beat the Bucs and win Super Bowl LVI during a Pro Bowl season. Gay hit on 94.1% of his field goals and 98% of his extra points that season.

Last year, Gay proved he had become a very accurate kicker, hitting 93.3% of his field goals and 96.9% of his extra points. That earned Gay a big contract extension with Los Angeles, making him the highest-paid kicker in NFL history. Gay signed a four-year, $22.5 million extension with the Rams.

There was some logic in Licht’s thought process when it came to drafting kicker. Kickers score more points than any other position for every team every year. It’s a very important position to get right and find stability with. Playoff teams rarely have shaky kickers.

In fact, this year in Tampa Bay where the Bucs will be starting a new quarterback with a new play-caller running a new offense one could guess that having a steady leg kicking field goals and extra points might be as important as ever. Not only will Licht and Bowles need to find the right replacement for Tom Brady this year, they’ll have to find the right replacement for the steady Succop.

Ryan Succop’s Cap Savings Was Valued, But At What Cost?

Sometimes you get what you pay for in life, and that could be true with the Bucs at the kicker position. The Bucs gave some thought to keeping Succop for one more season. But in the end, his $3.75 million in salary cap savings was valued more in an offseason when Tampa Bay is super tight against the cap.

A rookie kicker – whether a late, Day 3 draft pick or an undrafted free agent – would come super cheap, but also comes with some peril. The Bucs struggled mightily with Aguayo in 2016 and Gay in 2019 during their rookie seasons.

The Bucs had Succop compete with Jose Borregales during training camp and the preseason prior to the 2022 season, due in part to the veteran’s declining leg strength. However, they decided to keep him over the young upstart because of his accuracy. The 25-year old Borregales is currently kicking for Orlando in the XFL and may or may not be back this year to compete with Jake Verity, currently the only kicker on Tampa Bay’s roster.

In five years at East Carolina, Verity connected on 75.5% (74-of-98) of his field goals and 97.7% (30-of-31) of his extra points. His best season came in 2018 when he hit on 90.5% of his field goals, followed by an 82.8% season in 2019.

But Verity struggled as a fifth-year senior in 2020, connecting only 66.7% (14-of-21) of his field goals, which caused him to go undrafted. He’s far from being a lock for the starting job in Tampa Bay this year.

There might not be a kicker with a draftable grade this year. Rutgers’ Harrison Mevis, Syracuse’s Andre Szmyt, Michigan’s Jake Moody, Ohio State’s Noah Ruggles, North Carolina State’s Christopher Dunn, Maryland’s Chad Ryland and Georgia’s Jack Podlesny are the names to know this year.

The current crop of available free agents with young legs under the age of 33 consists of Chase McLaughlin, Brett Maher and Quinn Nordin, and is uninspiring.

The fact that the Bucs are contemplating going with a rookie again is a scary one because it simply hasn’t worked well in the past. And it may lead the team to regret letting Succop go in the end.