Nick Folk Released with Injury Designation by Buccaneers, Patrick Murray Signed

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers essentially cut kicker Nick Folk on Monday following a pair of shaky outings, including an 0-of-3 effort in Thursday night's 19-14 loss to the New England Patriots, according to Jenna Lane of ESPN.com. 

Lane explained the Buccaneers placed the kicker on injured reserve with a minor injury designation, meaning they must release him when healthy.

Lane also noted Tampa Bay announced it signed Patrick Murray to take over the kicking duties.

Murray was a member of the Buccaneers in 2014 and made 20 of his 24 field-goal attempts. He last kicked for the Cleveland Browns in 2016, connecting on one of his two attempts.

Folk won the Buccaneers' kicking battle in training camp over 2016 second-round pick Roberto Aguayo, and he looked the part of a long-term solution at the position when he banged home all four of his attempts in Weeks 2 and 3. 

However, the wheels started to come off in Week 4 when Folk missed an extra point, a 46-yard attempt and a 49-yard attempt before he banged home a 34-yard game-winner as time expired. 

Week 5 then proved disastrous as Folk left nine points on the board in a game the Buccaneers lost by five. All told, Folk came up empty from 56, 49 and 31 yards to continue a woeful trend in Tampa, according to NFL Research: 

"It's unfortunate because...he's been really solid in practice, the thing that happened last week kind of came out of left field," head coach Dirk Koetter said after Thursday's loss, according to NFL.com's Jeremy Bergman. "There was no real indication that was coming. We only kicked live in practice one day this week, and Nick was lights out.

"So again, these last two weeks haven't been exactly what we're looking for. Of course, Nick will be the first to admit that. But still, it's a team game. We had other opportunities."