Buccaneers working out a punter, not looking to replace Michael Koenen

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are bringing in punter Brock Miller for a workout, as first reported by Aaron Wilson. Now you may think that's to replace Michael Koenen -- but according to Greg Auman, it's just to see if they'd like to sign him to an offseason contract after the season.

The Bucs should be looking at new punters, though. Because Michael Koenen has been horrible this season.

Michael Koenen ranks 31st out of 32 punters in net punting average, and 32nd in gross punting average. That is really, really horrible. And it's not a short-term thing, either. Koenen was ranked 26th and 24th respectively last year, 28th and 21st in 2012, and 7th and 17th in 2011. That's a pretty clear downward trend.

There are reasons for those horrible stats, of course. Koenen told the Tampa Bay Times that the Bucs were looking for more fair catches, which is why he's punting the ball high and short. I have a newsflash for these coaches: this strategy sucks, and you need to stop it. The Bucs now have the third-worst special teams unit in the NFL -- and their punting strategy is league-worst. By quite a margin, according to Football Outsiders' analysis.

Of course, Michael Koenen is still very good at one thing: kickoffs. He consistently booms it out of the endzone for touchbacks, which is pretty valuable. And since he's a vested veteran, his contract this season is effectively guaranteed, so cutting him won't do anything in terms of cap space.

Still, the Bucs should really look at replacing Michael Koenen. Because this punting is getting slightly ridiculous.