Buccaneers take massive risk by signing K Chase McLaughlin
For a team that is generally very risk-averse, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have taken plenty of chances over the past few years. Most of these risks have paid off by making the Bucs one of the best teams in the NFL and helping them win a Super Bowl, but there are other risks that have […]
For a team that is generally very risk-averse, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have taken plenty of chances over the past few years.
Most of these risks have paid off by making the Bucs one of the best teams in the NFL and helping them win a Super Bowl, but there are other risks that have a way of hurting teams.
We have to hope that this one doesn't hurt the Bucs much down the road, but the team is currently taking a pretty massive risk with their free agent signing.
The Buccaneers recently decided to move on from Ryan Succop and his sure foot. This move was expected by many, but how the team followed this decision was a bit harder to predict.
As it stands, it looks like the Buccaneers are looking at replacing Succop with the signing of journeyman kicker Chase McLaughlin.
McLaughlin has bounced around the NFL since his arrival in 2019 to mixed results.
However, there is one area where McLaughlin is impressively good, and it solves one big issue for the Bucs from 2022.
McLaughlin is money from distance. Almost the exact opposite from Succop, McLaughlin is actually better from beyond 50 yards, and this would help the Bucs with some of the longer kicks they needed to hit last season.
However, is being good from distance worth giving up remarkable consistency from closer?
The answer is likely no.
Ryan Succop was able to revolutionize the kicking position for the Bucs by being able to hit almost everything asked of him. The only times where he missed were usually tied to some terrible decisions by Todd Bowles where most kickers would struggle anyway.
Yes, being able to kick longer field goals is more important in the modern game and grows more important by the day, but a signing like this has the makings of creating some shaky situations for the Bucs going forward if the data holds consistent.
Perhaps McLaughlin is able to put it all together and find a way to bring his consistency from deep to the shorter distances like he did in 2022 with a make% of 83.3, but this move will still probably end up being more risk than he Bucs would like to deal with.
Expect for the team to have someone else to compete with McLaughlin during camp. That's the only way to hedge a bet like this.
