Miami Hurricanes K Jose Borragales in good place signing with Buccaneers

Former Miami Hurricanes kicker Jose Borregales has a good opportunity to beat out Ryan Succop after signing with the Tampa Buccaneers as an undrafted free agent. Borregales won the Groza Award as the best kicker in college football in 2020. The Miami Hurricanes kicker was 37-37 on extra-point attempts and 20-22 on field goals.

Succop made 28 of his 31 field goal attempts, but only 52-57 extra-point attempts. The college extra point is 19 yards, while the NFL distance is from 29. Succop finished 10th in the NFL in field goal percentage in 2020 and 29th in PAT percentage. Tampa Bay has to be looking its PAT percentage to improve in 2021.

Succop finished fourth in PATs attempted and made in 2020. Borregales could have been signed for competition for Succop or the Buccaneers could be looking to move on at kicker. The 2020 season was the first for Succop in Tampa. Succop has played 11 years in the NFL, also playing for Kansas City and Tennessee.

Borregales was the top-ranked kicker entering the draft, but the Cincinnati Bengals chose Evan McPherson from Florida in the fifth round. After playing his first three years of college with FIU, Borregales finished with 378 points, made 98.2 percent of his extra points and 79.5 percent of his field-goal attempts.

In 2020, Borregales finished 15th nationally averaging 64.03 yards per kickoff. Tampa Bay punter Bradey Pinion handled kickoff in 2020. Pinion was fifth in the NFL averaging 64.8 yards per kickoff and third with 85 percent of his kickoffs resulting in touchbacks. That should not prevent Borregales from beating out Succop.

If Borregales is unable to become the kicker for the Buccaneers he will still likely earn a chance with an NFL team sometime during the 2021 season. Teams often change kickers in the middle of the season. After transferring from FIU to Miami, Borregales has the experience of becoming acclimated to a new team.