Bryan Cox enters his first season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2012, where he will serve as Defensive Front Seven Coach. 

Cox joins the Buccaneers after six years in the NFL coaching ranks with the New York Jets, Cleveland Browns and Miami Dolphins. Most recently, in 2011, Cox worked with new Buccaneers Defensive Coordinator Bill Sheridan in Miami as the pass rush coach, helping the team to a Top 10 finish in sacks, with 41 accounted for by 13 different players. The team finished with four different players having recorded four or more sacks, including Jared Odrick (6.0), Randy Starks (4.5), Jason Taylor (7.0) and Cameron Wake (8.5). 

Cox joined the Dolphins after spending the 2009-10 seasons with the Cleveland Browns as defensive line coach. In his first year with the Browns, he helped DE Robaire Smith come back from an Achilles injury to start in 15 games and finish fifth on the team with 62 tackles and 1.5 sacks. He also oversaw the development of NT Ahtyba Rubin and DE Brian Schaefering, both of whom made their first NFL starts in 2009. Rubin, a second-year performer, recorded 38 tackles and started the final five games as the Browns held their opponents to less than 100 yards rushing in three of them.  Schaefering played in the final five games of the season after spending the first 12 weeks on the practice squad, responding with 12 tackles and 1.5 sacks in his limited action. In all, Cox’s defensive lineman accounted for 11.5 sacks in 2009. 

Cox started his coaching career with the New York Jets, spending three seasons as assistant defensive line coach (2006-08). In 2008, he helped the Jets defense rank seventh in the NFL in both sacks (41.0) and rushing defense (94.9 ypg), during which time DT Shaun Ellis led the team with 8.0 sacks and finished fifth on the team in tackles. 

Cox had a stellar 12-year career as a linebacker in the NFL after being chosen by Miami in the fifth round of the 1991 NFL Draft (113th overall). He played the first five years of his career in Miami before spending time with Chicago (1996-97), where Buccaneers Head Coach Greg Schiano was serving as a defensive assistant. Cox then went on to play for the N.Y. Jets (1998-2000), New England (2001) and finished his career with New Orleans (2002). During his career, he appeared in 165 regular season games, including 145 starts. He posted 51.5 career sacks, including a high of 14 in 1992, a figure which led the Dolphins that year and earned him the first of three Pro Bowl selections. 

A graduate of Western Illinois, Cox played collegiately for the Leathernecks from 1987-90 while earning his degree in mass communications. 

He is a native of East St. Louis, Illinois, and is married to Kim. The couple has four daughters – Lavonda, Brittani, Kelli, and Chiquita – and one son – Bryan, Jr.

COX AT A GLANCE