As Good as Gould in Tampa?

The only team that may know more about kicking woes than the Chicago Bears is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The role of kicker has been a revolving door since the days of Martin Gramatica. The Buccaneers have been the laughing-stock of the NFL when it comes down to late game heroics from the kicker. They just can’t seem to get it right. The Buccaneers even selected the nation’s best collegiate kicker in Roberto Aguayo, and he turned out to be the worst one of them all. That could all be forgotten with one free agent move: Robbie Gould.

The former Bears, Giants, and current 49ers kicker is set to hit the free agent market. He has been about as good as it gets when talking about kickers. In fact, Chicago Bears fans were surprised that he was even let go after the 2015 season.  Gould went 33 of 34 in the 2018 season. That is a 97.1% success rate on field goals. Think about how many more wins the Buccaneers would have if our kickers made 97% of their attempts. Robbie Gould has missed three field goals since the 2016 season. He will be the “Gould” standard for free agents if your team is looking for a kicker.

Robbie Gould will be entering his 15th year as an NFL kicker. He is 36 years old and last season made $2 million in base salary and another $250,000 in bonuses for the San Francisco 49ers. In his career, Gould is 358-408 on field goal attempts made. That puts him at 87.8%. He is 454-465 on made extra points, which is 97.6%. Tampa Bay should look into the possibility of signing Gould for the 2019 season. Our window is still open, but the kicking game needs to get better, and Gould could be the answer in Tampa. We have the money to make a move like this, but if we don’t Cairo Santos will be serviceable for the Buccaneers. I know many of you will agree that it is time to start making some important kicks in Tampa.

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