The Buccaneers have fixed a lot on special teams this season. The punter spot still looks shaky.
Riley Dixon is in the final year of his two-year, $6 million deal, and a year and seven games into his Tampa Bay run, the numbers are getting harder to ignore. Dixon’s average has slipped to 43.4 yards per punt, which is the worst mark of his career.
He’s also graded out as the league’s 29th-best punter on PFF with a 59.5, and his numbers in individual categories have all landed in the bottom 10 in the league. That production has come on volume, too: Dixon has the six most punts in the NFL this season with 29.
That’s a step backward from last year, when he averaged 44.7 yards per punt - already the second-lowest of his career at that point. Dixon escaped a lot of the blame then because Tampa Bay’s entire special teams operation was a mess, with Chase McLaughlin standing out as the lone bright spot. The Buccaneers spent the offseason trying to clean that up, bringing in veteran special teams coach Danny Smith, and the difference has shown almost everywhere except at punter.
Smith’s group has been much more stable in 2026. McLaughlin has stayed perfect, going 16-for-16, and Tampa Bay’s kick coverage, punt coverage, tackling and return game have all been more consistent than in recent years, going back to the Bruce Arians era. In Sunday’s blowout win, special teams even swung the game in a big way, with a muffed punt recovery turning into a turnover and Tykee Smith’s blocked extra point becoming a touchdown when Zyon McCollum returned it to the end zone.
Still, punting remains the soft spot.
That matters because Tampa Bay remains in the playoff mix despite how uneven this team has been. The Buccaneers have not been good for about a year now, but the NFC South has left the door open, and Tampa Bay just went on the road and handled the division leader in convincing fashion.
Since 2021, the Bucs have won the division every year except last season, when they lost out in a rare three-way tiebreaker. If they’re serious about making the most of the stretch run, every weak point matters - and punting is one of them.
That’s why the timing of Bryce Baringer’s release by the New England Patriots is notable. Baringer missed time after a preseason injury and started the season on IR, while Mitch Wishnowski has filled in and stayed put because he has played well enough.
But Baringer brings more upside than Dixon, and his career average has never fallen below 46.9 yards per punt. In 2025, he was PFF’s 11th-ranked punter with a 77.6.
A year ago, Dixon wasn’t much better than he is now. His PFF grade then was 56.4, which makes this season’s 59.5 only a modest step up in a category where Tampa Bay still isn’t getting enough.
Punting may not grab headlines, but it shapes field position and can swing games. For a Buccaneers team trying to squeeze every bit of value out of the season, the conversation about Dixon shouldn’t be going away anytime soon.
In Other News...
Buccaneers Pulled Off A Rare Panthers Play Fans Had Never Seen
Special teams rarely become the headline in a divisional game, but Tampa Bay got an unusual lift against Carolina when the kick unit turned pressure into points. A blocked extra point flipped a routine try into a momentum play and helped stretch the Buccaneers advantage in a game that quickly got out of hand on the way to a 43-13 win.
The sequence stood out even more because it was a first in franchise history, with the Bucs cashing in on a blocked extra-point return in a way fans had never seen before. For a team that has leaned on defense and field position in plenty of big moments, it was another reminder that sometimes the smallest play on the scoreboard can have the biggest impact. [Read more 🡒]
Todd Bowles Just Gave Buccaneers Fans A Bigger Coaching Debate
As the NFL heads into Week 8, the pressure meter is starting to climb for several coaches, and the Buccaneers have found their way into the conversation for reasons they would rather avoid. The recent dismissal of Colts general manager Chris Ballard has only added to the sense that front offices are not waiting until the end of the year to make hard calls, and that kind of backdrop always sharpens the focus on Tampa Bays sideline.
Todd Bowles is among the names being discussed in the latest hot-seat chatter, a reflection of how quickly the temperature can rise when results start to slip. For the Buccaneers, the concern is not just about one rough stretch but about whether the organization believes the direction is still pointing the right way, and whether the coming weeks will settle the debate or make it louder. [Read more 🡒]
Bucs Suddenly Face A Trade Deadline Decision Fans Never Wanted
At 2-5, the Buccaneers have reached the kind of crossroads no contender wants to face in October. The passing game has been uneven, some of the rosters core players are getting older, and yet the NFC South is still open enough that a quick turnaround would keep Tampa Bay in the mix, even if the team is still chasing the division leader.
That is what makes the trade deadline conversation so uncomfortable around One Buccaneer Place. The Colts have already shown how far a team can go in rethinking its direction with midseason moves, and the Bucs are now weighing whether they should resist that kind of sell-off or at least consider it if the next stretch goes badly. For a team built to expect more than a rebuilding discussion, even having that debate is its own warning sign. [Read more 🡒]