Nugent Puts His Boot In Front As Bryant Watches Tuesday's Practice

Tuesday 8/4/09: Bucs Special Teams Practice:

Tampa Bay Buccaneers held Special Teams only practice on Tuesday at One Buc Place. However there was a large part of that group missing from the equation. One of the two kickers fighting for the starting position sat out of practice. Matt Bryant sat in a golf cart and watched his competition, Mike Nugent, take all the reps with the special teams unit. Nugent was perfect on all his kicks but two.

Head Coach Raheem Morris had this to say of Bryant, "He didn't feel great to go, so we decided not to. Kickers have got to feel right."

Either way sitting out of practice for any reason when competing for a starting job can never help the chances when losing reps to another player.

Bryant however, happens to be a fan favorite for multiple reasons in Tampa Bay. Bryant showed a softer side as well, as a tough side, during the Green Bay game last season. Bryant kicked a field goal with two minutes left to give the Bucs the victory over the Packers. The reason it was so significant is becasue sadly Bryant's newborn had passed away in his sleep just one Wednesday before that very game.

Bryant said in the post game press conference, "I had to go 3 for 3, there was no option, I wasn't going to screw up the day when I had the opportunity to acknowledge him again."

Bryant captured the hearts of the fans with this heart wrenching incident as well as being a great person off the field in the Tampa Bay community. Not only did Bryant win the game in Green Bay but he also remembered/honored his son with his performance on the field as well as after in his emotional press conference.

Another fan favorite moment for Bryant was when he kicked a 62 yard field goal against the Eagles at Raymond James. This amazing 62 yard kick was only one yard short of the all time NFL record held by Tom Dempsey ans Jason Elam.

Matt Bryant and Mike Nugent have around the same statistics with Bryant having more experience. Nugent has a success rate of 81.8% while Bryant has a 82.1% success rate. Bryant has a slight edge in percentage as well as attempts so he would seem to be a slight favorite based on just the numbers. However, Bryant's age could become a factor. Bryant is 34, which is not old by any means for a kicker but in the NFL the league gets tougher as a players get older.

Nugent, brought into camp to compete with Bryant, has some incentive to win the starting job. If he wins the job and becomes the number one kicker, he will receive $2.4 million for his first year with the Bucs. Bryant makes about half of that each year.

Nugent would seem to have the front office on his side with the amount of money that was offered to him to come to camp, however if he does not become the starter he receives nothing. Therefore Nugent really has no edge on Bryant as far as a financial bind either.

It would seem the decision is going to come down to the basics. Whoever kicks the best during training camp gets the job. This is a refreshing change in the NFL as some positions are decided on reputations/stipulations for starters before the players have proven to be starting quality.

Matt Bryant would love to expect that loyalty will play some role in the Buccaneers organization, but judging by the cuts of beloved veterans over the past couple seasons. After releasing veterans such as Warrick Dunn, Warren Sapp, John Lynch, and Derrick Brooks loyalty would seem a bit unrealistic. Unfortunately the fans ultimately play no role in deciding who gets cut and who stays but the NFL is a business first and foremost.

Mike Nugent looks to have the edge heading into the end of the first week of training camp with Matt Bryant sitting on the sidelines. Even though Raheem seemed to brush the undisclosed injury aside, Morris and the coaching staff can not neglect the work Nugent put in on Tuesday as a result. Nugent missed two kicks during practice and looked solid on all his kicks but one. A kick that sailed wide left from 49 yards with the whole team yelling at him to simmulate a game situation. The miss was not good for Nugent but he still was out there making the coaches take notice of what he has to offer. Any exposure is good exposure supposedly.