The Tampa Bay Buccaneers enter the 2025 season seeking their third Super Bowl championship, 11th division title and 16th trip to the postseason. That kind of success, which as of the 2025 campaign will span a half-century, is born of a steady stream of star-caliber players, from the franchise's first playoff teams in the late '70s and early '80s to the Super Bowl era 20 years later to the current run of unmatched success.
Of all the great players to suit up for the Buccaneers through 50 years, who are the best of the best? We're counting down that list right now.
Since 1976, more than 1,200 players have worn the Tampa Bay uniform during the regular season, each leaving their mark on the club's legacy. This milestone season, we're honoring that impact by naming the Top 50 Players in Buccaneers history. That list was shaped by fan voting throughout the offseason, alongside input from Tampa Bay media and team representatives. And now it is ready to be unveiled.
The Top 50 list has been determined and will be revealed over the course of 10 days, starting this past Tuesday with the players who landed in spots 50 to 41. Now we move on to the next group, those who came in at spots 40 to 31. We've recruited some of the players who made the list to help us share their own stories and celebrate their teammates and predecessors in a series of breakdown videos. Click here to watch the video reveal of the numbers 40-31.
40. S Mark Cotney, 1976-84
One of the few genuinely impactful players to come out of the 1976 Veteran Allocation Draft between the Buccaneers and expansion sister Seattle Seahawks, Mark Cotney was a fixture on the first great defense in team history and part of the reason the Bucs were able to win their division in just the fourth season of the franchise's existence.
Cotney had been drafted by the Houston Oilers in the seventh round of the 1975 draft and he spent his rookie season as a reserve, starting just two games. Upon landing in Tampa, he became a long-time starter in a very strong secondary, opening 92 of the 113 games he played over the next nine years. Though he missed the 1981 season due to a preseason knee injury and was out of the starting lineup in 1982, he was back in his customary spot at strong safety by 1983. Overall, Cotney racked up 17 interceptions for the Buccaneers, along with seven fumble recoveries and 5.0 sacks. Paired with fellow safety Cedric Brown, Cotney gave the early Buccaneers' playoff teams one of the most fearsome back ends of a secondary in the NFL.
39. CB Brian Kelly, 1998-2007
A second-round draft pick in 1998, Brian Kelly spent a decade in the Bucs' uniform and became a long-time running mate for future Hall of Famer Rondé Barber. Kelly was never selected for a Pro Bowl but he probably should have been in multiple seasons, most notably when he tied for the NFL lead with eight interceptions in 2002, when the Buccaneers' defense peaked as one of the greatest of all time.
Kelly was only a spot starter his first three seasons but he became an indispensable part of a strong secondary after Donnie Abraham left in free agency. Kelly would go on to start 89 of the 141 games in which he played for Tampa Bay, finishing with 22 interceptions to rank seventh in franchise history. He was also credited with 100 passes defensed, twice topping 20 in a season, and had 426 tackles and five fumble recoveries. Kelly had another interception and six passes defensed in nine playoff games, as well.
38. QB Baker Mayfield, 2023-Present
The Buccaneers signed Mayfield in the spring of 2023 to compete with Kyle Trask to earn the unenviable job of replacing the retired Tom Brady, who had guided the team to a Super Bowl championship and two division titles. After bouncing between three teams in the previous calendar year, Mayfield quickly found a home in Tampa and in just two seasons so far has already produced 8,544 passing yards, 69 touchdown passes and a countless number of gritty scrambles that energized the players around him.
Mayfield has kept the Bucs' NFC South title streak alive, guiding the team to their third and fourth consecutive crowns while recording the two best seasons of his career, statistically. After compiling his first 4,000-yard season and throwing a career-best 28 touchdown passes in 2023, Mayfield blew those numbers away in 2024, reaching 4,500 yards and 41 touchdowns. He tied for second in the NFL with that TD total and set a Buccaneers' single-season record with a passer rating of 106.8.
37. CB Mike Washington, 1976-84
With talented players hard to come by for the 1976 expansion Buccaneers, the team chose to trade a third-round pick in that year's draft to Baltimore to get Mike Washington, who had been drafted in the same round a year earlier. That proved to be one of the more astute personnel moves of the franchise's early years, as Washington would go on to start 97 of the 100 games he would play over the next nine seasons as the first great cornerback in team history.
At the time of his retirement, Washington's 28 interceptions were a franchise record, and he returned three of them for touchdowns. He had four different seasons with at least four picks, peaking in 1981 when six interceptions that he returned for a total of 156 yards and a touchdown. Tampa Bay had the NFL's top-ranked pass defense during their 1979 postseason breakthrough season and also finished in the top five in 1978 and 1982, and Washington was one of the main reasons why.
36. LB Hugh Green, 1981-85
Hugh Green arrived as the seventh-overall pick in the 1981 draft after being recognized as one of the best college defenders of all-time. While he played on the line and rushed the passer at Pitt, the Buccaneers moved him to off-ball linebacker and he became a two-way threat, finishing his five-year Bucs tenure with five interceptions (two returned for touchdowns) and 15.5 sacks.
Green was an instant hit in Tampa Bay's defense, starting all 25 games of the 1981-82 seasons and finishing third in the balloting for Defensive Rookie of the Year in his first campaign. He went to make the Pro Bowl in both 1982 and 1983 and was a second-team Associated Press All-Pro in both of those seasons as well. Green was the only member of the Buccaneers' strong defense in from that era other than Lee Roy Selmon who made multiple Pro Bowl appearances. Before playing his last seven seasons in Miami following a 1985 trade, Green started all but one of the 54 games he played, and in the one game he served as a reserve due to an injury, he managed to snare an interception.
35. DT David Logan, 1979-86
The Buccaneers surely couldn't known what they were getting when they picked David Logan, another Pitt product in the 12th round after 306 other players had already been selected in 1979. After playing in just five games as a rookie, Logan emerged as the team's starting nose tackle the following year and held that spot through 1986, starting 103 games overall. A force against both the pass and the run, Logan also had a penchant for timely big plays, as evidenced by his four career defensive touchdowns.
Logan became the inside pass rusher that the Bucs' defense needed to pair with Lee Roy Selmon's ferocity off the edge. He would finish with 39 sacks, which is still tied for the sixth-most in team history and is a remarkable total for a nose tackle. In the final game of the 1981 season, with the Buccaneers in Detroit to battle the Lions in a winner-take-all game for the division title, Logan and Selmon combined to produce one of the most memorable plays in franchise history. In the fourth quarter, with the Bucs clinging to a 13-10 lead, Selmon sacked Eric Hipple and forced a fumble that Logan scooped up and returned 21 yards for a touchdown. The Bucs would go on to win, 20-17.
34. WR Mark Carrier, 1987-92
After Kevin House, Mark Carrier was the next great wide receiver in franchise history. A third-round pick in 1987, Carrier played six seasons for the Buccaneers and left as the organization's record-holder for both career receiving yards (5,018, 90 more than House) and single-season receiving yards (1,422 in 1989). While Mike Evans has since taken over both of those marks as well as most of the other receiving records in team history, Carrier remains third on the Bucs' all-time receiving yardage chart.
That 1989 season was one of the best ever produced by a Tampa Bay wideout. Carrier made the Pro Bowl after averaging 16.5 yards per grab and scoring nine touchdowns, along the way recording nine 100-yard receiving games. He was the first Buccaneer receiver ever to earn a Pro Bowl invitation, and his 212 yards in a game against the Saints in 1987 has only been topped one time since, by the next player on this list.
33. WR Vincent Jackson, 2012-16
When Vincent Jackson arrived in 2012, he had already recorded three 1,000-yard seasons for the Chargers and been to two Pro Bowls. He was arguably even better in his five years with the Buccaneers and he stands as one of the most successful free agency signings the team has ever made. His 4,326 receiving yards as a Buccaneer ranks fifth in franchise history and his 16.1 yards per catch mark him as one of the premier big-play pass-catchers the franchise has known.
Jackson started his Buccaneers tenure with a bang, racking up 1,384 yards and eight touchdowns in 2012 while leading the NFL with an average of 19.2 yards per catch. He would top the 1,000-yard mark in both 2013 and 2014 as well, at the time joining Joey Galloway as the only two Buccaneer receivers ever to accomplish that feat in three straight seasons. As noted, Jackson also broke Mark Carrier's long-standing team record when he racked up 216 receiving yards in a game against the Saints in 2012. While Jackson's numbers declined in 2015 and 2016, his impact remained great as he served as a mentor to Mike Evans and helped install the same sort of work ethic that propelled Jackson to greatness in his 12-year NFL career.
32. G Davin Joseph, 2006-13
The Buccaneers were in need of an offensive tackle in the spring of 2006, so they surprised the league by selecting Oklahoma guard Davin Joseph with the 23rd overall pick instead. (The tackle, Jeremy Trueblood, arrived in the second round). The decision proved to be a great one, as Joseph quickly evolved into one of the best offensive guards in franchise history. He is currently the only Buccaneer guard to be selected to multiple Pro Bowls, earning that honor in both 2008 and 2011.
Joseph moved into the starting lineup early in his rookie season and wen on to open all but one of the 100 games in which he played for the Buccaneers. A preseason knee injury cost him the entire 2012 season but he came back strong to start all 16 games in 2013, his last season in Tampa before he finished up his career with one year as a starter for the Rams. In addition to the outsized impact he made on the field, Joseph has lasting effect on the franchise off the field as well, as the Turkey Time with the O-Line event he and Trueblood founded remains an honored annual tradition for that unit to this day.
31. WR Joey Galloway, 2004-08
Joey Galloway had already played nine seasons in Seattle and Dallas before he came to Tampa in 2004 as a straight-up trade for fellow wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson, but the speedster quickly showed that he was still one of the top deep threats in the NFL. After being limited by injury to 10 games and seven starts in his first year with the Bucs, he then became the first player in franchise history to produce three consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons.
From 2005-07, Galloway was the Buccaneers' most dangerous offensive weapon, racking up 3,358 yards and 23 touchdowns while averaging 16.6 yards per reception for a team that made the playoffs in both 2005 and 2007. He was the first Tampa Bay receiver ever to hit double digits in touchdown catches in a season, scoring 10 times in 2005. He also occasionally served as a punt returner and he scored another touchdown in that capacity in 2004. Galloway currently ranks seventh in team history in receiving yards (3,912) and eighth in total touchdowns (29).
