Of all the important decisions the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' brain trust has made over a half-century of roster building, one of the first one they ever made remains one of the best. After winning a coin flip with fellow expansion team Seattle, the Buccaneers landed the first-overall pick in the 1976 NFL Draft. They couldn't possibly have chosen better.
As we near the very top of our Top 50 countdown, we are encountering players who were not only game-changers but franchise icons and beloved figures in the Bay area. Lee Roy Selmon, the Oklahoma star around whom the Buccaneers fashioned their first great defense, was revered by Buccaneer fans during and after his playing days, and even after his untimely passing at the age of 56 in 2011.
Since 1976, more than 1,200 players have worn the Tampa Bay uniform during the regular season, each arriving in his own unique way and 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 being unveiled.
The Top 50 list has been revealed over the course of 10 days, concluding on Thursday night with the players who landed in spots 10 to 1. 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 30-21. We covered the first five players on that list in one post and are now devoting dedicated stories to each player who landed in the top five. At this point, any of these players could have credibly been chosen as the number-one Buccaneer of all time, including our current subject who came at #2.
2. DE Lee Roy Selmon, 1976-85
The Buccaneers started their inaugural roster with some off-the-street signings and a Veteran Allocation Draft mostly populated with older and injured players. The team's first draft, however, brought them Selmon and some other cornerstone figures, and the Buccaneers had built one of the NFL's best defenses by 1978 and it's number-one ranked unit by 1979. That unit propelled Tampa Bay to its first playoff appearance and first postseason win, and it all centered around the Bucs' unstoppable pass-rusher off the edge.
While he was limited by injury to eight games and six starts as a rookie, finishing with 5.0 sacks, he emerged as a full-fledged star in just his second season, racking up a career-high 13.0 sacks. That would start a string of three double-digit sack seasons in a row – he would end up with four of them overall and he was named an Associated Press second-team All-Pro in 1978.
In 1979, Selmon gained recognition as one of the most impactful defenders in the entire NFL. He was the first Buccaneer to earn NFL Defensive Player of the Year, an honor later bestowed on Warren Sapp in 1999 and Derrick Brooks in 2002. That was also the first of his six consecutive Pro Bowl seasons, which is tied with Mike Alstott, Mike Evans and Gerald McCoy for the third most in franchise history. In addition to first-team All-Pro honors in that '79 season, he also had additional second-round selections in 1980 and 1982.
While Selmon is listed on the Buccaneers' roster as having played with the team from 1976-1985, he actually spent his last season on injured reserve due to a back injury suffered in the previous year's Pro Bowl. He retired after that season, but not before he had set a still-standing franchise record with 78.5 sacks. He added another 4.0 sacks in just four playoff appearances.
Selmon would also lead the Buccaneers to playoff appearances in 1981 and 1982, and in 1995, nearly a decade after his retirement, he became the first player in franchise history to gain enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A terrifying assignment for opposing offensive lineman, Selmon was perhaps better known for his unerringly kind and gentle manner and his huge impact on the Bay area community beyond the playing field. In the end, Selmon did not land the very top spot on our Top 50 players countdown, but there would not have been any outcry if had been named number one.
