The player who steadied the Bucs’ poor history of wayward kickers is moving on, Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times reports.

Ryan Succop, who ended a failed parade of drafted placekickers, such as Roberto Aguayo and Matt Gay, has been released in a move that will save the Bucs $3.75 million on the salary cap.

Succop, 36, had one year remaining on his contract that was not guaranteed and was coming off his worst season with the Bucs, connecting on only 81.6% of his field goal attempts.

Perhaps more importantly, head coach Todd Bowles said after the season that he wanted someone who had more range. Succop was only 2-for-7 on field goals of 50 yards or more. The average distance of those attempts was 52.3 yards, which means they weren’t relying on him for record-breaking attempts.

“Ryan was very efficient this year, but we’ve got to be able to kick longer field goals than we’ve kicked,” Bowles said at the end of the season. “I think we’ve got to get past 47 yards, be able to kick from 50, 55 yards as well.”

Succop leaves as the most accurate kicker in Bucs history with a field goal percentage of 84.8 (84-for-99), breaking Connor Barth’s mark of 83.8.

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