For the second time in two months, the Buccaneers have decided to replace their starting kicker. The team's new kicker going forward will be Patrick Murray, who agreed to terms with the Bucs on Monday, according to his agents.
Murray was one of six kickers who were brought in for a tryout on Monday after Nick Folk's meltdown in Week 5 against the Patriots. In Tampa Bay's 19-14 loss on Thursday, Folk went 0-for-3 on field goals with misses from 56, 49 and 31 yards.
The 31-yarder was the ugliest one because it came with just 5:39 left in the fourth quarter and would've made it a one-score game. Instead, Folk missed the kick wide left to cap off a nightmarish game that has now cost him his job.
One day after the loss, the Bucs made it clear that they were going to look to replace Folk before their Week 6 game in Arizona. The team brought in several kickers on Monday -- including Mike Nugent, Andrew Franks, Josh Lambo, Cairo Santos, Murray and Marshall Koehn -- to complete for Folk's job.
In the end, Tampa Bay decided to go with Murray, who actually kicked for the Buccaneers in 2014. After a solid season that year, it looked like Murray was going to stick around, but he didn't play in 2015 due to a torn ACL. Murray ended up spending the season on IR and never got a chance to earn his job back because he was cut in May 2016 after the Bucs spent a second-round pick on Roberto Aguayo. So yes, the Buccaneers kicking job has officially come full circle.
Murray has a career field-goal percentage of 80.8, which is a lot higher than what Folk has given the Bucs this year. Through five games Folk has connected on just 6 of 11 field-goal attempts (54.5 percent). All of those misses have come in the past two games. Folk has also missed two extra points (7 of 9).
The Buccaneers have been struggling in the kicking department for nearly a year a half. Folk was brought in to replace Aguayo, who finished an ugly 22 of 31 during his rookie season in 2016.
Even though Murray will be the starter going forward, Folk isn't officially gone yet. The Bucs placed him on injured reserve with a "minor injury" designation, meaning that he'll be released once he heals from whatever injury he's dealing with.