Buccaneers sign top 10 punter in free agency from Broncos

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had a pretty bad punting problem last year in 2024, cycling through three different ones by the time the season was over — and none of them performed particularly well. They'll try to avoid that in 2025, and they took another big step in doing so on Tuesday.

The NFL's Ian Rapoport reported that the Bucs are signing Broncos punter Ryan Dixon during the second day of the NFL's legal tampering period. Dixon, 31, has been in the NFL since 2016, and he's being signed on a two-year deal worth $6 million.

This is the second punter move the Buccaneers have made in the offseason. The first one came shortly after the Buccaneers lost their playoff game to the Washington Commanders when they signed CFL standout Jake Julien to a futures contract. Julien will compete with Dixon for that starting spot, and Dixon should be a formidable opponent.

Dixon was a top 10 punter in the NFL last year by net yardage, which accounts for both the distance of a punt and the return afterward. He had a net punt of 42.2, which came in at No. 9 among all punters last year — to put that into perspective for you, all three of Tampa Bay's punters in the 2024 season were in the bottom five of 37 qualifiers, with the absolute best of them, Trenton Gill, coming in at No. 32 in the NFL with a net average of 38.7.

So yeah, it'll be tough to be worse than last year. But Dixon offers veteran experience for cheap and fills a pretty desperate need, so this could be a good signing for the Bucs.

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