Apparently, even the addition of Tom Brady can’t solve the Buccaneers’ kicking woes.
According to Tom Pelissero, the Bucs have agreed to terms with former Titans’ kicker Ryan Succop. Succop joins Matt Gay and Elliot Fry in camp just under two weeks before they kick off the season in New Orleans against the Saints. Gay appeared in all 16 games for the Buccaneers as a rookie. Fry, on the other hand, has bounced around with several teams prior to signing with Tampa earlier in the offseason.
The #Bucs have agreed to terms with veteran kicker Ryan Succop, source said. Terms not immediately available, but change potentially afoot in Tampa.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) September 1, 2020
Gay went 27-of-35 last season on field goal attempts, a 77 percent success rate that put him in the bottom third of the league. Of his eight misses, the most notable one came in Week 3 against the Giants. Down one, with just four seconds remaining, Gay missed what would have been a game-winning, 34-yard field goal. It was his second miss of the game.
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| 20-2 | 20-2 | 30-3 | 30-3 | 40-4 | 40-4 | 50+ | 50+ | Scor | Scor | Scor | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Player | From | To | G | FGA | FGM | FGA | FGM | FGA | FGM | FGA | FGM | FG% | XPA | XPM |
| 1 | Matt Gay | 2019 | 2019 | 16 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 14 | 11 | 8 | 5 | 77.1% | 48 | 43 |
| 2 | Ryan Succop | 2009 | 2019 | 166 | 62 | 60 | 85 | 78 | 101 | 76 | 37 | 20 | 82.2% | 348 | 338 |
Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
Succop appeared in just six games in 2019 for the Titans and was just 1-of-6 during that stretch. To be fair, five of the missed field goals came from beyond 40 yards. Prior to 2019, he had played the previous five seasons with the Titans after he spent the first five years of his career in Kansas City. During those 10 seasons, Succop converted on 83.6 percent of his field goal attempts. In addition, he never missed a game in that time.
For a team built to win a Super Bowl, an inconcsistent kicker could easily derail those hopes. Just ask Peyton Manning and the early 2000s Colts.
