TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — For the second time in four NFL drafts, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have selected one of the best kickers in college football.
They can only hope Utah’s Matt Gay, the 2017 Lou Groza Award winner, doesn’t turn out to be another Roberto Aguayo.
The Bucs took Gay early in the fifth round on Saturday, ending a string of five consecutive selections used to secure help for one of the league’s worst defenses.
In two college seasons, Gay set a school record with eight field goals of 50-plus yards and compiled the second-best career field goal percentage (86.2 in Utes’ history by converting 56 of 65 attempts.
Gay said the Bucs stayed in touch with him in the weeks leading up to the draft but never provided an indication that they had “extreme interest” in him. He said he thought he might be drafted in the sixth or seventh round, so he was surprised when the phone rang earlier than expected.
“I got a call, it was a Tampa number. I looked at the board and saw they were two picks away,” Gay said. “I was kind of like, ‘No way, not right now.’ It was amazing.”
Iowa defensive end Anthony Nelson was Tampa Bay’s first pick on the final day of the draft, landing with the Bucs in the fourth round after the club added linebacker Devin White, cornerbacks Sean Bunting and Jamel Dean, and safety Mike Edwards over the previous two days.
Gay played two years of soccer at Utah Valley before spending the past two at Utah, where he made all 40 of his extra points and was 30 of 34 on field goal attempts to win the Groza award as the nation’s top kicker in 2017.
Aguayo also was a Groza winner during a standout career at Florida State. The Bucs traded up 15 spots to select him in the second round of the 2016 draft, only to release him following a disappointing rookie season.
Gay will compete for a job with incumbent kicker Cairo Santos, who joined the Bucs early last season after one of the team’s key offseason acquisitions — Chandler Cantanzaro — got off to a slow start and was cut.
The addition of Nelson, the fifth pick of the fourth round, adds depth on the defensive line. He led Iowa in sacks with 7 1/2 two years ago and was second in the Big Ten with 9 1/2 as a junior in 2018.
Prior to this, in the fourth round, the San Francisco 49ers had selected Gay’s teammate at the University of Utah, punter Mitch Wishnowsky with the 110th overall selection.
Wishnowsky was renowned as the most consistent punter in this draft by nfl.com.
The native of Perth, Australia, was a third-team The Associated Press All-American and made the All-Pac 12 first team by averaging 45.2 yards per punt in 2018 for the Utes.
For his career, Wishnowsky averaged 45.7 yards per punt.
49ers general manager John Lynch told San Francisco media that the team views Wishnowsky as a “10-year guy.”
Furthermore, Lynch said that Wishnowsky is valuable as “he can hit it [the ball] with different spins.”
The 49ers acquired Wishnowsky by trading back with the Cincinnati Bengals, who traded for San Francisco’s selection at #104 to get NC State quarterback Ryan Finley.
The Indianapolis Colts, in the 7th round, selected Utah tackle Jackson Barton. He is the brother of Cody Barton, whom the Seattle Seahawks selected 88th overall in the 3rd round Friday evening, out of Utah.
Jackson Barton is considered an “elite athlete” by the senior lead writer of Stampede Blue, the Colts’ SB Nation site, Zach Hicks, especially for his size and weight (6-7, 300 pounds).
Hicks sees Barton as “a pure project that either rounds out the roster/lands on the practice squad.”
Finally, former Utah State tailback Darwin Thompson was selected 214th overall (the last selection of the 6th Round) by the Kansas City Chiefs.
Thompson has NFL lineage as his uncle, David Thompson, played with the St. Louis Rams from 1995-1997, and at Oklahoma State prior to that from 1993-1996.
Thompson was a second-team All-Mountain West Conference member, running for 1,044 yards and 14 touchdows in 2018 for the Aggies, averaging 6.8 yards per carry.
