The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a new special teams coordinator but may enter the 2024 season with the same group of specialists as last year. On Friday, the Buccaneers struck a new one-year deal with Zach Triner, who has handled the team's long-snapping duties for most of the last five seasons. Triner had become an unrestricted free agent last week.
Triner will work under new coordinator Thomas McGaughey, who was hired to replace the retiring Keith Armstrong. McGaughey inherits not only Triner but a pair of kickers who had strong 2024 seasons for the Buccaneers in punter Jake Camarda and placekicker Chase McLaughlin. McLaughlin signed a new three-year contract with the Buccaneers just before the start of free agency.
Triner (6-3, 245) joined the Buccaneers in January of 2019 as a reserve/future signing and got the job that season when the team elected not to re-sign veteran Garrison Sanborn, who had handled the long-snapping duties for the previous two seasons. Triner has since played in 84 of the Bucs' last 92 games, playoffs included, missing eight contests in 2021 due to a finger injury on his left hand. That landed him on injured reserve, but not before he played the majority of the Bucs' season-opening win over Dallas after suffering the injury.
In addition to his reliable snaps on punts and placekicks, Triner has also recorded 10 special teams tackles, tying a career high with three stops in 2023.
Triner played his college ball at Assumption and originally entered the league as a free agent with the New York Jets in 2017. He was waived in the spring but eventually ended up on the Green Bay Packers' practice squad late in that season. Triner went back to training camp with the Packers in 2018 but was waived in the final roster cuts and did not play in the league in 2018.
The Buccaneers currently have two long-snappers on their offseason roster. Evan Deckers, who went to training camp in Tampa as an undrafted rookie last summer and spent a week on the team's practice squad in December when Triner was working through an elbow injury. The Bucs re-signed Deckers to a reserve/future contract in January.
The Buccaneers have now re-upped with 10 of the 18 players from their 2023 roster who became or could have become unrestricted free agents on March 13. That list includes Triner, McLaughlin, wide receiver Mike Evans, linebacker Lavonte David, quarterback Baker Mayfield, safety Antoine Winfield Jr. (franchise tag), running back Chase Edmonds, defensive lineman Greg Gaines, tackle Justin Skule and quarterback John Wolford.
