Nate Kaeding signs with Buccaneers, Connor Barth raises eyebrow

According to Roy Cummings of the Tampa Tribune, Nate Kaeding has signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Cummings cited Kaeding's agent as a source. And with that, the Buccaneers continue their impressive offseason of adding depth to their team. After all, every team needs a second kicker to provide competition for the starter. Whose entire salary is guaranteed this season. Which means he's not getting cut unless he goes out and starts burning down children's hospitals or something -- and Connor Barth is much too a nice guy for that.

Though he did used to sport one hell of a creepy moustache.

Nate Kaeding, meanwhile, may be most famous for being an incredibly accurate field goal kicker during the regular season, and then suddenly hitting barely over 50% in the playoffs. His massive failure against the New York Jets in the 2009 playoffs come to mind, when he missed three field goals in a three-point game. Oooooooops. Of course, the Bucs have yet to make it to the playoffs since the 2007 season, so it's not like that's a big problem for them.

Kaeding struggled with injuries the past two seasons and has played just three games since the start of 2011. He does have one bit of upside, though: he's a pretty good kickoff guy. The Buccaneers have Michael Koenen handle those, but if he's cut (and with a hefty salary and no guarantees left it's not completely out of the question), and Barth somehow gets injured they'd have someone who can handle those. I guess?

Also, there's injury protection. Yeah. To be fair, this move doesn't hurt the Buccaneers either. As long as they cut him before the season (which they will) his cap hit will be measured in thousands of dollars, which is essentially nothing on the salary cap. Still, it's kind of useless.