On Wednesday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers signed veteran defensive lineman Adam Gotsis and first-year punter Jake Julien to reserve/futures contract for the 2025 season. They are the 19th and 20th players the Buccaneers have locked in to deals for 2025 following the end of their 2024 season, beginning with the re-signing of 17 of their own practice squad members on January 14. The team also added former Ravens linebacker Deion Jennings on the 15th.
Like most of those 20 players, Gotsis finished the season on Tampa Bay's practice squad, though he had only arrived in Tampa six days earlier. Julien was not on an NFL roster in 2024, though he has had tryouts with seven teams, including the Buccaneers, since November.
Reserve/futures contracts are what teams use to add free agent players to their roster for the upcoming year while the current season is still going on. Those players will be activated after the Super Bowl.
Gotsis played five games for the Indianapolis Colts in 2024, recording eight tackles and two quarterback hits. Originally a second-round draft pick by Denver in 2016, he played four seasons for the Broncos and another four with the Jacksonville Jaguars before joining the Colts in September.
Gotsis has appeared in 126 games with 54 starts, including seven starts in 17 outings for the Jaguars last year. He has recorded 226 tackles, 10.5 sacks, 43 quarterback hits, 25 tackles for loss, 22 passes defensed, three forced fumbles and four fumble recoveries.
Julien, who played his college ball at Eastern Michigan, signed with the New England Patriots as an undrafted free agent in 2022. He was waived midway through August of that year and has spent the last two years playing for the Edmonton Elks of the Canadian Football League. During that span he appeared in 36 times and posted a 49.4-yard gross average on 228 punts. Julien was a CFL All-Start in 2024 after setting a new league record with a 54.0-yard gross punting average.
At EMU, Julien appeared in 54 games and punted 221 times for 9726 yards for a gross average of 44.0 yards per kick. He led the MAC in punting average in each of his last three seasons, peaking at 45.9 in 2021.
The Buccaneers used three different punters in 2024, starting with incumbent Jake Camarda before moving on to Trenton Gill and then Jack Browning to finish the season. Browning remains under contract for the 2025 season.
