The Bucs have signed long snapper Zach Triner to the 53-man roster, per Greg Auman of Fox Sports. This move comes after starting long snapper Evan Deckers suffered a hamstring injury in Tampa Bay’s 26-7 loss on Sunday to the Broncos, forcing the Bucs to make a signing of Triner, who the Bucs are more than familiar with.

Bucs LS Zach Triner – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

At Monday’s press conference, head coach Todd Bowles Triner previously played for the Bucs as the team’s long snapper from 2019 to 2023. He won a Super Bowl with Tampa Bay in the 2020 season and has played in 75 career games making 10 career tackles.

During the 2024 training camp in Tampa, Deckers and Triner battled it out for the starting job. Deckers, who at age 25 is eight years younger than the 33 year old Triner had won it out. It had partially had to do with Deckers’ contract being less expensive. Come this week, though, Triner may get another opportunity.

Bucs Special Teams Kicking Review

The kicking game this year, which directly involves the long snapper, has been great in one area and worrisome in another. Kicker Chase McLaughlin has been money once again so far. He’s gone five for five on his field goal attempts, including hitting two from over 50 yards and a long of 56. His extra points have been automatic, too, connecting on all seven attempts.

Punter Jake Camarda has been another story. After some struggles in the preseason, it continued over into the regular season especially in the first two games. During the season opener, Camarda’s lone punt of the afternoon went for a pedestrian 38 yards, but luckily the Bucs won in a lopsided game and it wasn’t an issue.

Bucs K Chase McLaughlin and P Jake Carmada – Photo by: Cliff Welch P/R

In Week 2, the first two punts failed to go inside the 20 despite having plenty of room to do so. The latter of of the two was only a 42 yarder. His third punt was his best, getting to the 18-yard line. However, his last punt of the game was almost costly at the end.

With the Bucs holding a 20-16 lead over Lions with 42 seconds to go, Camarda punted out of the front of Tampa Bay’s end zone. His kick went only 43 yards, barely getting over midfield to the Lions’ 47. Worst of all was that it was a low, line drive kind of kick so it didn’t give the Bucs’ gunners much time to get down the field. This gave Detroit a nine-yard return and had them starting at the Bucs’ 44. Luckily, Tampa Bay’s defense was able to get a stop and the Bucs won.

Camarda was much better in Week 3. He had a long of 67 yards on one attempt, although another was tipped and resulted in a 33-yard punt, but his next two each went inside the 10-yard line landing at the nine and six. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come as his punting game gets back into form.