Three Questions on Special Teams

As the Tampa Bay Buccaneers prepared to trim their roster from 80 players down to the regular-season limit of 53 earlier this week, there was only one spot on special teams that was up for grabs. Punter Jake Camarda and long-snapper Zach Triner were both one-of-one on that roster so, barring a very unexpected waiver claim, they were clearly going through to the 53. However, the Buccaneers did have to make a final decision between kickers Ryan Succop and Jose Borregales.

Head Coach Todd Bowles hinted before Tuesday’s ‘final’ round of cuts that the veteran Succop had held onto his job, and indeed the team waived Borregales to make that official. However, while all three specialist spots on the 53-man roster have been decided, some questions still remain about the Buccaneers’ special teams overall. The roster may be set, but there are still jobs to be one within the kick-and-coverage game. Let’s take a quick look at some of those pressing questions.

1. Will the Buccaneers be comfortable trying more long field goals?

Succop is the most accurate kicker in Buccaneers franchise history, and the 11th-hour decision to bring him in at the beginning of the 2020 Super Bowl season paid off in a big way. For one thing, he was nine-for-nine on field goal attempts during that four-game playoff run to the top of the hill.

As part of Jason Licht’s hugely successful effort to “keep the band together” during the 2021 offseason and make a run at a second straight title with the same group, Succop got a new three-year contract. However, within his team record-setting 86.9% field goal success rate, it’s worth noting that it dropped from 90.3% in 2020 to 83.3% last year. In addition, Succop had a long of 48 last year and only attempted eight field goals of 43 or more yards, making four of them.

It was for that reason that Succop had competition for the job in 2022, even as he entered the second-year of his contract. Borregales has a very strong leg and if he won the battle might have given the Buccaneers more of a long-distance weapon. Succop was up for that competition, though, kicking nearly flawlessly throughout training camp practices and then making all three of his placekicks, including an encouraging 52-yard field goal. Borregales did hit a 55-yarder in the first preseason game but then missed his next two tries from 49 and 52. With Succop looking like he did in 2020, the Buccaneers chose to stay with the proven incumbent.

“Consistency,” answered Bowles when asked what the…