Whatever Happened to Bucs' 2025 Free Agents? Riley Dixon

TAMPA — When the Buccaneers inked veteran punter Riley Dixon last spring, the move was framed as a stabilizer for a special-teams room that had cycled through three different punters in 2024. Nine seasons of NFL mileage suggested Dixon could steady the position. Reality, at least early on, was rockier.

By the final week of September, two of Dixon’s punts had been swatted away, and Tampa Bay’s coaching staff was already canvassing alternatives. Yet the 32-year-old held his roster spot, calmed the operation, and punted every remaining down of the schedule.

The final analytics were a mixed bag. Pro Football Focus stamped him with a 56.4 grade—his lowest since a 51.2 mark with the 2021 New York Giants. His net average of 40.16 yards ranked 27th league-wide, and his 4.33-second hang-time placed 23rd. Where Dixon continued to earn his paycheck was directional placement: 31 of 63 attempts (49.2 percent) were downed inside the 20, fourth-best in the NFL. By comparison, during 2024 in Denver he logged 42.2 net yards, 4.43 hang-time and 34 inside-the-20 punts on 77 attempts.

The club’s uncertainty about retaining him dissolved earlier this month when it exercised the option on his contract, blocking his path to March’s open market. Dixon, who turns 33 in August, now faces a new chapter under freshly hired special-teams coordinator Danny Smith, the energetic longtime Steelers assistant who arrived in Tampa after Mike Tomlin’s departure from Pittsburgh. Smith inherits a unit that, like the Steelers’ recent punting carousel, is searching for consistency; Pittsburgh has started three punters since 2023.

For the Bucs, the bet is that a seasoned leg and a new voice can coax more distance and hang-time without sacrificing the precision that has long been Dixon’s calling card. The special-teams overhaul begins with him.