Coined the “Rock Star” GM by the ever so aptly naming machine known as JoeBucsFan.com, Mark Dominik drafted some very good players, some of whom like Gerald McCoy and Lavonte David to name a few. But it was the mistakes, the errors that doomed Dominik, maybe not so much for making them but for how long he stayed with them.
Fast Forward to the Anti-Rock Star Jason Licht who jumps in his pool after wins, and isnt afraid to make the big deal to get That Player, aka His Guy.
Roberto Aguayo “Rock Star” was his guy. To steal a McKayism, The Most accurate kicker in NCAA collegiate football history, well that kicker is kaput. One year almost to the day from when it all came apart for Aguayo, he repeated his ill fortune and came out for the first pre-season game of the year and stunk the place up with his kicks.
To be fair the extra point he missed vs Cincinnati went straight as an arrow, just that it wasn’t supposed to: if your standing on the right hash marks it has to curve in a bit. Bengals kickers Randy Bullock and Jake Elliot had no problems, but then this is a broken record with the excuses we’ve had to make for Aguayo, who is now the Chicago Bears problem, and he can be consoled by Mike Glennon.
No one should be surprised if Aguayo succeeds at kicking in the NFL once he gets a fresh start, and NFL kickers will re-adjust to the new kicking paradigm. But bad luck of having to start a pro career when the NFL went all Belichik rule crazy, rather than have Aguayo cost the Bucs games and perhaps a shot at the playoffs, Jason Licht did what he always does when one of his moves goes south.
He sends them south down the highway, like a rock star, only, not.
EXTRA: WHAT HAPPENED TO AGUAYO THE Rock Star?
If you want to know what happened to Aguayo I think the answer is simple, bad timing. No, I don’t mean bad timing of his kicks. I mean bad timing joining the NFL right at the time the league changed the rules to push kicks back to a 30 yard Field Goal instead of 19 yarders that were never missed (never in this case is over 99%).
In 2016, 75 extra points by 36 different NFL kickers were either missed or blocked. The year before the rule change, when Extra points were 19 yard FG attempts, only 8 extra points were not made, for whatever reason, by 37 NFL Kickers. Only 7 kickers of those 37 were NOT 100% perfect. Last year only 7 of the 36 were 100%.
Kicking Field Goals is a mental discipline, its probably 80-90% mental, the swinging of the leg and lining up is so routine, imagine how many times you think an NFL kicker has swung at a football towards the goal posts. Many theories have been brought up as to why so many NFL kickers struggled with kicking the last couple years.
Extra points were GIMMEs like a warm up screen pass for a QB in a game before going downfield. Eliminate the gimme, and now kickers have to bring their A game just for the extra point, and if they miss, it throws the rhythm off.
It has to be something to it, experienced kickers like Nick Novak, Steven Hauscha, Dan Carpenter, and several others could not even crack the 90% mark, Carpenter not able to get into the 80s. Rock Star Imaging this effect on experienced veterans like these, on a young kid from Florida State where he was labeled the most accurate kicker ever. One miss in his career, he was head man on campus, A pro team TRADED UP to draft him in the second round…and he missed his first kick in preseason and got booed in camp when missing more.
