Roberto Aguayo doesn’t look good in practice, but it’s early

The most open competition the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have going right now is at kicker. Roberto Aguayo was last year’s second-round pick but performed poorly enough for the Bucs to sign veteran Nick Folk to seriously challenge him.

This is the result of the first day of OTA’s, on goalposts that are narrower than those used in actual NFL games:

Here’s the thing: small samples, and especially day-to-day samples, don’t say all that much about any kicker’s accuracy. One day with three missed kicks isn’t good, but it’s not that decisive, and it’s too easy to get caught up in day-to-day swings when doing this sort of thing.

It’s also good to keep in mind that being a kicker is about more than field goals: there’s also kickoffs. And while those don’t directly put points on the board, it’s certainly very valuable to be able to get a touchback or a pop-up kick at the one-yard line on demand—and Aguayo has been very good at those. Folk, on the other hand, has been just okay.

So let’s check back in a week or two. If Folk is still comfortably outkicking Roberto Aguayo in accuracy, then we can talk about the state of this competition. Until then, it’s probably too early to tell—which is exactly what Dirk Koetter told the media today.