The National Football League today announced that Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety Mike Edwards was named NFC Special Teams Player of the Week for Week 2. This marks the first time that Edwards has earned Defensive Player of the Week honors in his career. He becomes the fourth different Buccaneers safety to win the award and the first since Pro Football Hall of Famer John Lynch in 1996 (Week 13).
In a 48-25 win over the Atlanta Falcons in Week 2, Edwards returned a pair of fourth quarter interceptions for touchdowns to seal the win for Tampa Bay. Both of Edwards' interceptions came in the fourth quarter, marking only the 10th time in NFL history that a player has registered multiple interceptions returned for a touchdown in a single quarter. Edwards is the first player since 1992 with two interceptions returned for touchdowns in the fourth quarter of a single game (Robert Massey, 10/4/92 vs. Washington). He is also the first player in the NFL to record multiple interceptions returned for a touchdown in the same game since 2012 (Tennessee LB Zach Brown vs. Jacksonville, 12/30/12). There are only 31 instances in NFL history of a player recording multiple pick-sixes in the same game, including postseason.
In Buccaneers history, Edwards became just the third player to return multiple interceptions for a touchdown in a single game, joining Rondé Barber (10/22/06 vs. Philadelphia) and Dwight Smith (Super Bowl XXXVII vs. Oakland).
Edwards' two interceptions are currently tied for the NFL lead. Since he joined the team in 2019, the Buccaneers rank third in the NFL with 57 takeaways, while leading the league with 258 points off turnovers.
He is the second Buccaneers player to win a weekly award this season (Bradley Pinion, Special Teams, Week 1) and the first Tampa Bay player to win NFC Defensive Teams Player of the Week honors since linebacker Devin White won twice in 2020 (Week 7, Week 15).
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