Chicago Bears: Three great reasons for signing Roberto Aguayo
The Chicago Bears recently signed Roberto Aguayo. It was a good move for three good reasons.
Roberto Aguayo was a legendary kicker at Florida State University. He was 69 of 78 (88%) on field goals in three years of college. He was absolutely perfect in three years on extra points. 198 out of 198! That’s 100% for the non-math majors. His signing is a good one for three reasons.
Aguayo compares favorably to Connor Barth.
Robert Aguayo did not miss a single extra point in three years. Connor Barth missed one last year. Furthermore, Barth hit on 18 of 23 field goals last year for just 78%. Aguayo is capable of much, much more. His 88% success rate in college is pretty impressive as is. Last year with Tampa Bay, however, he wasn’t as bad as people think. He made 22 of 31 field goal attempts, good for 71% success. That’s barely better than Barth who was sixth worst in the NFL.
Most think that looks like a horribly inconsistent kicker. On the contrary, Roberto Aguayo just had problems with long field goals. In fact, his success rate was better than Barth’s at distances less than forty yards. Barth attempted four kicks between 40-49 yards, and made three. Aguayo attempted 10. Sure, he only made four, but if Barth had attempted 10 how many would he have made? Six or seven?
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Camp competition is good.
Other than perhaps the quarterback
situation, any competition in training camp is good. This is particularly true when the incumbent starter is average at best. Even if Aguayo is WHO WE THOUGHT HE WAS, then he’s still a guy who can boom a kickoff into the end zone at a much higher percentage than Barth. To clarify, Connor Barth had a touchback percentage of less than 50% last year.
Furthermore, the Chicago Bears will at least get a close-up look at Roberto Aguayo, and know whether he can be called on in a pinch. If Barth goes down to injury like seemingly every third Chicago Bears player, then the coaching staff will know if Aguayo is someone to consider.
Nobody falls off that fast.
Something happened to Roberto Aguayo at Tampa Bay. Nobody knows what exactly, but it was enough for the Buccaneers to cut a kicker they drafted in the second round after only one year on the team. I’ll pause for the laughter to die down. A kicker drafted in the second round is a kicker with incredible potential. That’s something Connor Barth doesn’t really have. He’s at best a serviceable average kicker.
Aguayo went from perhaps the most highly touted kicker in the past decade, one who simply did not miss, to a guy with accuracy issues. There simply has to be something else to it. Did he hate his holder? Is the long snapper left-handed? Was he hiding an injury? Or maybe the equipment manager was putting liquid heat in his jock strap. There absolutely has to be a reason for the decline.
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To summarize, the Roberto Aguayo signing is a low risk, low money move that has massive upside. The Chicago Bears should be constantly attempting to upgrade all positions, especially those with sub-par starters.