A former Syracuse walk-on quarterback turned durable NFL punter, Riley Dixon has booted for five franchises across an 11th pro season with Tampa Bay.
Riley Dixon has quietly built one of the more durable careers among NFL specialists, moving from Denver to New York, Los Angeles and back to Denver before landing with the Buccaneers. He is now in his 11th season and remains one of the more experienced punters in the league, with well over 600 career punts to his name.
Path to the league
Dixon walked on at Syracuse after starting his high school career as a quarterback at Christian Brothers Academy. He developed into a first-team All-ACC punter, appearing in 39 games for the Orange and totaling 218 punts for 9,291 yards with a 42.9-yard average. The Denver Broncos took him in the seventh round of the 2016 NFL Draft.
Career highlights
Dixon beat out veteran Britton Colquitt for Denver's punting job as a rookie and earned a spot on the NFL's All-Rookie Team after averaging 45.7 yards gross and 41.3 net. He was traded to the New York Giants in 2018 for a conditional seventh-round pick, spent four seasons there, added a year with the Los Angeles Rams, and returned to Denver in 2023 before signing with Tampa Bay as a free agent in March 2025. For his career he has punted 668 times for 30,687 yards with a 45.9-yard gross average.
2025 season recap
In his first year with the Buccaneers, Dixon punted 63 times for a 44.7-yard average and a 38.9-yard net, dropping 29 punts inside the 20. The season opened roughly, with two blocked punts in the first four games prompting Tampa Bay to work out other options, but the club ultimately exercised his contract option to keep him on for 2026.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Riley Dixon
- Pro Football Reference: Riley Dixon
Statistics
2025 season and career2025 Season · Punting
17 games played▶Punting · career
| Year | Team | GP | PUNTS | YDS | AVG | LNG | IN20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | buccaneers | 17 | 63 | 2,815 | 44.7 | 62 | 29 |
| 2024 | broncos | 17 | 77 | 3,597 | 46.7 | 65 | 33 |
| 2023 | broncos | 17 | 79 | 3,659 | 46.3 | 68 | 27 |
| 2022 | rams | 17 | 71 | 3,434 | 48.4 | 67 | 19 |
| 2021 | giants | 17 | 74 | 3,283 | 44.4 | 63 | 24 |
| 2020 | giants | 16 | 65 | 2,911 | 44.8 | 71 | 28 |
| 2019 | giants | 16 | 69 | 3,178 | 46.1 | 62 | 29 |
| 2018 | giants | 16 | 71 | 3,226 | 45.4 | 60 | 20 |
| 2017 | broncos | 16 | 73 | 3,331 | 45.6 | 60 | 23 |
| 2016 | broncos | 16 | 89 | 4,068 | 45.7 | 68 | 28 |
Player Profile
Background
- Position
- Punter
- Group
- specialTeam
- College
- Syracuse
- Hometown
- Blossvale, NY, USA
- Age
- 32
- Status
- active
