Todd Bowles is re-living a nightmare he thought he escaped, and it will cost the Bucs more games if it’s not fixed
The Bucs officially have a big problem on their hands.
Todd Bowles probably thinks he’s living on Elm Street right now.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach went through the motions at punter in 2024, to the point where the Bucs deployed three different guys over a 17-game span. It was definitely a weak spot for Bowles and Co., and it caused plenty of problems throughout the year.
Ahead of the 2025 season, it looked like Bowles escaped that nightmare. The team signed veteran punter Riley Dixon and it seemed like all the past problems were left behind after a strong training camp and preseason.
“It’ll be a breath of fresh air for me this year,” Bowles told reporters in August.
Well, things were looking pretty rough after Week 2. Chase McLaughlin had missed three of eight kicks at that point, and the Bucs watched a Dixon punt get blocked against the Houston Texans, which almost cost Tampa Bay a win.
Still, there was hope that everything would work itself out. Unfortunately for Bowles and the Bucs, that hasn’t been anywhere close to the situation. The special teams, mainly the punting unit, are one of the league’s worst, and it came back to bite the Bucs on Sunday against the Eagles.
Bucs need to think long and hard about the future of special teams coach Thomas McGaughey
The Bucs have now watched three kicks get blocked in as many weeks: The aforementioned block punt against the Houston Texans, the blocked field goal attempt returned for a touchdown by the New York Jets in Week 3, and then the blocked punt returned for a touchdown by the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.
That’s simply unacceptable, and the Bucs will keep losing games if it happens. On top of that, Dixon just hasn’t been good. He shanked a punt not long after the block, and it went for a mere 18 yards. The Eagles would’ve received the ball almost at midfield if they weren’t called for holding on the return.
“It is something we will figure out in the meetings,” Bowles told reporters when asked about the special teams. “We will look at the whole operation, how we are doing it, why we are doing it, if we are doing it with the right people, and if we are doing it with the right scheme. That is three weeks in a row where something went wrong, and we will get that fixed.
“There is a lot going on special teams-wise, and none of it is good.”
It’s easily the biggest problem for the Bucs, right now. We’ll see what adjustments are made and if they provide a pathway toward turning this around. Either way, McGaughey’s future really needs to be discussed, especially since teams have zeroed in on the punt unit’s weakness and are exploiting it.
Kam Johnson and Chase McLaughlin are the lone bright spots on special teams
Bowles is correct – this needs to get fixed. However, it’s not all bad.
Kameron Johnson is establishing himself as one of the NFL’s most dangerous punt returners. He’s currently fourth with 159 punt return yards, and his average of 15.9 yards per return is second among returners with at least eight punt returns on the year. Seattle Seahawks WR Tory Horton leads all returners with 20.8 yards per return in that context.
He returned six punts for 100 yards against the Eagles, and one of those returns was a 46-yarder that set the Bucs up at the Eagles’ 40. Unfortunately, Mayfield and Co. went three-and-out and couldn’t do anything with the great field position. Still, Johnson is turning into a weapon, and that’ll come in handy during big games.
“He had a big return for us in the second half,” said Bowles. “Like I said, we picked it up in the second half, but you cannot get behind the eight ball 14-0 and then expect to come back and win those types of ball games. We did some good things – we understand that [and] we acknowledge that, but we are trying to win ballgames here, so we [have] to be clean throughout.”
McLaughlin’s future with the Bucs was starting to get murky after Week 2, but he had an excellent game on Sunday that earned him back a lot of trust. He’s still not out of the woods, yet, but going three-for-three on field goal attempts that included kicks of 65 yards (both an NFL and Bucs franchise record), 58 yards, and 42 yards certainly has him in a good spot after a tough start to the year.
“He has come back from an early season slump,” said Bowles. “He has been making some great kicks for us, and for him to hit that one was huge for us. We did not know he had that in range – we thought he would be close – but for him to hit that was big.”
So, it’s not all sirens and alarm bells. But the panic button has certainly been pressed, and the Bucs can bank on more losses if they don’t get this figured out.
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