The Bucs have a couple of needs on their roster to fill this offseason. While defense has taken up most of the focus, Tampa Bay is also in the market for a punter on special teams. The Bucs found a new punter on Tuesday Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network has reported that the Bucs are signing former Broncos punter Riley Dixon to a two-year, $6 million deal.

Dixon is 31 years old and has been in the NFL for nine seasons. He began his career with the Broncos, getting drafted by them in the seventh round out of Syracuse in 2016. He spent two years with the Broncos, four seasons with the Giants, one season with the Rams and the least two years back with Denver before coming to the Bucs.

Bucs Punter Riley Dixon – Photo by: USA Today

In his career, Dixon has 668 punting attempts that have gone for 30,867 yards with an average of 45.9 yards per attempt. He also has 231 punts that have landed inside the 20 and only 42 touchbacks. The longest punt of his career went 71 yards in the 2020 season.

When it has come to trick plays, Dixon has completed four passes on six attempts for 37 yards with three of those completions going for first downs. He had a highlight passing play in his only playoff game which happened this latest season with the Broncos where he completed a 15-yard pass on a fake punt against the Bills that went for a first down.

Last season with Denver, Dixon was sixth in the league in landing 33 punts inside the 20 with only five touchbacks. He averaged 46.7 yards per attempt, which isn’t that high compared to the rest of the league.

Dixon did have a high of 65 for his longest punt of the season, though. When it comes to EPA, Dixon had the 13th best total out of 36 punters, so he was in the top half of the league. During my Bucs Battle Plan, I had Dixon going to the Bucs as a free agent signing.

Bucs ST coordinator Thomas McGaughey – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Riley Dixon Has Connection To Bucs Personnel

Why would Riley Dixon be on the radar of the Bucs? That’s because Tampa Bay’s special teams coach Thomas McGaughey has a lot of familiarity with him. Dixon and McGaughey each went to the New York Giants in 2018 with Dixon as the starting punter and McGaughey as the special teams coordinator. Dixon played there until 2021 while McGaughey remained with the Giants until 2023, then went over to the Bucs the following season. They reunite again in 2025 as a duo.

Dixon also has brief ties to another important figure on the Bucs roster, quarterback Baker Mayfield. During the one season that Dixon was with the Rams, it was the same year that Mayfield signed on late in the season and had a spectacular game helping the Rams defeaat the Raiders on Thursday Night Football. This time around it’ll be Mayfield welcoming Dixon to a team, and Mayfield isn’t just a player on the Bucs, he’s a big figure in all of their success.

Bucs Desperately Needed To Fix Punting Situation

Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: Jeffrey Jones/PR

Tampa Bay thought they’d have a punter for many seasons with third-year punter Jake Camarda, but that did not work out. While Camarda has a booming leg, he began to shank some punts and also hit low line drives, which did not give enough time for the gunners and other players on the Bucs’ punt coverage unit to get down the field and stop the returner before getting a big gain and good field position.

Camarda was eventually let go in late October after making him inactive for a couple of games. He ended up punting in just four games. The Bucs pivoted to Trenton Gill, who played in eight total games and finished down the stretch with Jack Browning for five games and their postseason game. Neither of these punters had the encouraging results would give Tampa Bay their next punter for the following season.

Head coach Todd Bowles infamously kept his evaluation of what he wants in a punter rather simple when addressing it at the Combine – just don’t shank it. What Riley Dixon gives to the Bucs is a veteran player that can be consistent enough in each week and has done it long enough to understand what his expectations will be.