Buccaneers GM ‘owning up to’ mistake of Roberto Aguayo draft pick

Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht was widely derided and mocked for trading up to select a kicker, Roberto Aguayo, with the No. 59 overall pick of the 2016 NFL Draft. It only got worse when Aguayo proved ineffective.

With Aguayo now released due to his maddening inconsistency and missed kicks, Licht could only say that he was “owning up” to making a bad move.

“I’m owning up to it,” Licht told Peter King of the MMQB. “I’m owning up to it by releasing him. It was a bold move and it didn’t work out. I don’t know what else to say. I know I have the support of my coach and my ownership.

“At the time, I was bound and determined to get the best kicker we possibly could. I thought Roberto had the chance to be a special kicker in the league for a long time. That’s a position that had been a rough spot for us. What did I learn from this? I’ve said this before, but when we took him, we essentially anointed him. If I could do it again, I would have gone back and brought in competition to challenge him. I look back on that a lot. Roberto is a great kid, but the magnitude of that position, and the pressure on a 21-year-old—his performance is affecting the lives of men who have families to support. That got tough.”

Aguayo has already landed somewhere else, where he will hope to rebound with less pressure. That will leave Licht to nurse his wounds and deal with the damage done to his reputation.