The veteran punter’s stay was short-lived in Tampa.
Less than a day after his disastrous performance that nearly cost his team the game, Trenton Gill got the boot from the Bucs Monday, the team announced.
Gill’s release comes after a game featuring two horrible kicks that directly contributed to both of Carolina’s touchdown drives. The first was a 22-yard shank that set the Panthers up deep in Tampa territory, and the other came on a kickoff late in the 4th quarter that failed to reach the landing zone, which is a new penalty under the revised kickoff rules that immediately moves the ball out the receiving team’s 40-yard line. The Panthers, down 20-16 at the time, drove down the shortened field and took the lead with 30 second remaining.
The 25-year-old Gill was an abject disaster through basically all of his Bucs’ tenure, averaging just 43.3 yards per punt over 8 games, which ranked 34th in the league. The third-year veteran replaced former top pick Jake Camarda, whose fall from grace and own release looks like a small hiccup compared to what Gill produced.
Bucs’ Trenton Gill averaged 45.6 yards on five punts Sunday. His season numbers are still rough — 34th out of 34 punters with 10+ attempts with a 43.3 average, and 31st out of 34 in net punting at 38.9. Camarda had better overall average, still worse on net average.
— Greg Auman (@gregauman) December 2, 2024
The Bucs will likely replace Gill with rookie Jack Browning, who’s been on Tampa’s practice squad. The 23-year-old out of San Diego State punted with the Buffalo Bills in the preseason before latching on with Tampa. Browning handled field goals, punts, and kickoffs for the Aztecs, and he finished 2023 as a Ray Guy semifinalist and second-team All-Mountain West conference after hitting 54 punts for 2,449 yards (45.35 yards per punt) with a long of 66 yards.
He can’t be much worse than what the Bucs have fielded so far this year, so we’ll see what he’s got this Sunday against the Las Vegas Raiders.