Might the Tampa Bay Bucs be prepared to kick their punter to the curb?
Punter Michael Koenen, coming off the worst year of his career, faces a new challenge in his efforts to hold on as the team punter. Koenen averaged 40.4 yards per punt last year, 10th in the NFL. The Bucs claimed Cleveland punter Spencer Lanning, who averaged 44.3 yards per punt.
Lanning (5-11, 200) has spent the last two seasons with the Cleveland Browns (2013-14), appearing in all 32 games, punting 177 times for 7,798 yards (44.1 avg.), placing 53 punts inside the 20, with a net average of 38.6 yards.
Lanning, who played collegiately at South Carolina, originally entered the league in 2011 as a college free agent with Chicago, spending the offseason and preseason with the Bears. The Rock Hill, S.C., native spent time in the 2012 offseason and preseason with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Cleveland Browns and New York Jets, before being re-signed by the Browns during the 2013 offseason.
Lanning became expendable after the Browns traded for San Francisco’s Andy Lee, a three-time Pro Bowler, who averaged 46.8 lyards ast year.
Lanning is the youngest of the three punters at 27. Lee and Koenen are both 32.
