Bucs lose K Barth to season-ending injury
Tampa Bay Buccaneers place-kicker Connor Barth suffered a torn Achilles' tendon playing in a charity basketball game on Friday that will sideline him for the 2013 season, the team announced Wednesday.
To replace him on the roster, the Bucs signed former New York Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes, a 35-year-old free agent who made 33 of 39 field goal attempts and was second in the NFL with 145 points last season .
The Buccaneers placed Barth, 27, on the reserve/non-football injury list rather than on injured reserve.
One of the NFL's more consistent kickers in recent years, Barth exceeded 100 points during each of the past three seasons and converted 86.5 percent of his field goal tries during that span. Last season, he made 28 of 33 field goal attempts after signing a four-year, $13.2 million contract ($4 million in guarantees) in 2012.
"We are disappointed to lose a productive player like Connor, but are very fortunate to be able to sign an experienced kicker at this time of year," Buccaneers general manager Mark Dominik said.
The Giants said so long to the veteran Tynes in March after six seasons when they signed 34-year-old veteran Josh Brown, a former Seattle Seahawks and St. Louis Rams kicker who played in four games for the Cincinnati Bengals last season
