Chicago Bears claim kicker Roberto Aguayo off of waivers

The Chicago Bears have reportedly claimed kicker Roberto Aguayo off of waivers from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Now, these are the kind of moves the Chicago Bears should be making. On Saturday, I advocated the Bears taking a shot on recently waived kicker Roberto Aguayo. Well, according to Field Yates of ESPN, the Bears have claimed Aguayo, and he will now do battle with Connor Barth through the rest of the preseason.

This is not a slam dunk move for the Bears. Aguayo has been pretty awful as an NFL kicker. I totally see why a contending team like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers would move on from him, but he certainly makes sense for a rebuilding squad like the Chicago Bears.

To get a better idea of Aguayo, let’s look back to my post from yesterday:

"“Aguayo is one of the most accurate kickers in college football history. At Florida State, he went 198 for 198 on extra points and hit 69 field goals in 78 attempts. Simply put, Aguayo was automatic in college and entered the 2016 NFL Draft as the clear top kicker prospect.”“The Buccaneers went a bit too crazy for Aguayo trading up to select him in the second round with the 59th overall pick. Aguayo was an impressive kicker prospect, but that is far too early for any kicker.”“Aguayo struggled as a rookie. He went 32 for 34 on extra points and an ugly 22 for 31 on field goal attempts. Aguayo was solid in the short-to-mid range, hitting 18 of 20 field goals of 39 yards or less. However, going 4 for 11 from 40+ yards with only one of those attempts being 50 yards or more was completely unacceptable.”"

The Bucs brought Nick Folk in to compete with Aguayo over the offseason. Folk has been pretty much automatic, while Aguayo has continued to struggle. Tampa Bay has put together an extremely talented roster that should compete for a postseason berth. They simply could not deal with the inconsistency of Aguayo any longer.

There is no risk

That being said, there is no downside for the Bears to take this plunge. Maybe a change of scenery is all that Aguayo needs? Even if he comes into camp and continues to look awful, the Bears can simply just cut him with little loss. If he kicks well, they may have found their kicker of the future.

Next: What we learned from Bears' first preseason game

The Bucs taking Aguayo so early was a bad pick, but he was legitimately an elite kicker prospect coming out of college. Only one season into his NFL career, I refuse to believe that he is a lost cause.

Bringing in Aguayo might not end up working out, but the rebuilding Chicago Bears have nothing to lose to find out.