The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will compete in their 50th season this fall, as the NFL's 27th franchise began play in 1976. The first half century of Buccaneer action was filled with memorable moments, most notably a pair of Super Bowl championships, one in the 2002 season and one in the 2020 campaign. Most recently, the Buccaneers have compiled five straight playoff seasons and four straight NFC South Division titles, both franchise records. No team has ever won the NFC South five years in a row, so the Bucs can chase even more history in Season 50.
As we celebrate the Buccaneers' 50th season this year with a look back at the past 49 seasons plus a glimpse at the what he next 50 may hold, we are highlighting some of the best games, seasons and careers in franchise history. Today, our focus is on the most prolific passers to don a Buccaneer uniform. Specifically, we're highlighting the five men who have the most career passing yards for Tampa Bay, a list that includes four players drafted in the first round by the Buccaneers and one who was perhaps the most dramatic free agency signing in league history.
Until recently, franchise icon and Ring of Honor member Doug Williams was on this top-five list, but now he's at number six. Rounding out the top 10 are Brad Johnson, Steve DeBerg, Baker Mayfield and Craig Erickson. Mayfield is the only one who can still add to his passing yardage total, and since he's under contract for at least the next two years and is at the helm of one of the NFL's most prolific passing attacks, he's got an excellent chance to shake up the top five in a major way. More on that below.
The Five Buccaneers with the Most Passing Yards in Franchise History
- Jameis Winston, 19,737 yards, 2015-19
Winston was the first-overall pick in the 2015 draft and a starter from Day One of his rookie campaign, so even though he only played out one contract in Tampa, he saw enough action in a robust passing environment to not only break the team's previous record but put a lot of distance between himself and number two on the list.
Winston started every game in his first two seasons and surpassed 4,000 passing yards in both of them. At the time, there had only been one previous 4,000-yard season in franchise history. He missed 10 games over the 2017-18 campaigns, three on a suspension and some while ceding starts back and forth with Ryan Fitzpatrick, but he still threw for a combined 6,496 yards in those two years.
In 2019, his last season in Tampa, Winston once again started all 16 games and made the most of them, from a yardage standpoint, amassing a (since-topped) team single-season record with 5,109 passing yards. That was famously also his 33-30 campaign, where he became the first and still only quarterback in NFL history to toss 30-plus touchdowns and 30-plus interceptions in the same season.
Winston started his last season in Tampa still in second place on the team's career yardage list, but not by much. He went into the season need just 193 more yards to break the record, and he put up 194 in the season opener against San Francisco. Over his five seasons in Tampa, Winston averaged 3,947.4 passing yards per season and 274.1 per game, including two relief appearances. It's worth noting that Winston did not play in any 17-game seasons for the Buccaneers, as the 17th game wasn't added until 2021.
- Vinny Testaverde, 14,820 yards, 1987-92
Testaverde was also a first-overall draft pick, in his case in the 1987 draft. The Bucs had spent the previous two seasons shuttling between Steve DeBerg and future Hall of Famer Steve Young, but were ready to start over in '87 with a new head coach in Ray Perkins and a new quarterback in the Heisman Trophy winner from Miami.
Unlike Winston, Testaverde was not given the starting job straight out of camp as a rookie. He opened the season behind DeBerg and didn't start until the final month of the season. (Three of the previous starts also went to replacement players during the 1987 players strike.) He immediately threw for 369 yards – a bigger deal in 1987 than 2024 – and two touchdowns in his first start, but the Bucs went 0-4 in his four games at the helm.
Testaverde got the job in 1988 and produced 3,240 passing yards that season and 3,133 the next; at the time, those were two of only five 3,000-yard seasons in franchise annals. He missed some starts in each of his last three seasons in Tampa and didn't hit 3,000 again but still finished as the team's all-time passing-yardage leader, a spot he held for 27 years.
Over his six seasons as a Buccaneer, Testaverde averaged 2,470 passing yards per campaign and 195 per game, including four that he did not start. As it turned out, those six years in Tampa didn't even constitute half of his NFL career. Playing for the Jets, Browns, Ravens, Cowboys, Panthers and Patriots, Testaverde appeared in 233 games with 214 starts and racked up 46,233 passing yards and 275 touchdown passes. He ranks 16th all-time in the NFL in passing yards as 2025 begins.
- Tom Brady, 14,643 yards, 2020-22
Brady nearly had as many passing yards in three seasons as a Buccaneer as Testaverde did, for two reasons. One, Tom Brady is the G.OA.T. and demolishing records is kind of what he does. And two, the NFL game in the 2020s is different from what it was in the late '80s. When Testaverde threw for 3,240 yards in 1988, that ranked ninth among all quarterbacks. Last year, it would have ranked 20th.
None of which diminishes what Brady accomplished in his brief but incredible fireworks show over three years in Tampa. All he did in his first year with the Bucs, without the help of any preseason time with his teammates to build offensive chemistry, is throw for 4,633 yards and 40 touchdowns. Add in the four-game run to the Super Bowl LV championship, and it was 5,694 yards and a cool 50 TDs on the nose. Postseason numbers aren't included in the rankings here, but 50 touchdown passes at the age of 43 was so unprecedented it seemed unimaginable.
If anything, the Bucs' passing attack was even better in 2021, when Brady threw for 5,316 yards and 43 touchdowns, leading the NFL in both categories and setting the franchise's single-season records in both. That got him second place in the NFL MVP voting. Tampa Bay's offense was more limited in 2022, Brady's final NFL season, and the team's scoring dropped precipitously from the year before, but Brady still threw for another 4,694 yards. It helped that he set an NFL record with 733 pass attempts.
Yes, Brady's last two seasons in Tampa were 17 games long, giving him a little more of an opportunity to chase franchise records. But he should get credit for starting every single game in that span, at the ages of 44 and 45. In his three seasons in red and pewter, Brady averaged 4,881 passing yards per season and 292.9 per game, all starts. If the Buccaneers had landed the G.O.A.T, say, two years earlier than they did, he would almost surely be at the very top of this list.
- Josh Freeman, 13,534 yards, 2009-13
Freeman's 3,451 yards, 25 touchdowns and six interceptions in his first full season as a starter (2010) seemed to portend big things for him as the Bucs' new franchise quarterback. His career didn't really unfold in that way, but he did have three consecutive seasons of 3,400 or more passing yards and in 2012 became the first Tampa Bay passer to eclipse the 4,000-yard mark in a single campaign.
Freeman was a first-round draft pick, selected 17th overall in 2009 out of Kansas State. The Bucs had relied on veterans like Jeff Garcia and Brian Griese over the previous two years but were now starting over with a completely different room. Not wanting to just hand the starting job over to Freeman, the Bucs also signed veteran quarterback Byron Leftwich and also had 2008 fifth-round pick Josh Johnson on hand to be the primary backup.
However, the Buccaneers lost their first three games with Leftwich at the helm, then four more in a row after turning to Johnson. Thus Freeman got his first start in Week Nine for an 0-7 team facing the playoff-bound Green Bay Packers. Wearing Creamsicle throwback uniforms for the first time ever, Freeman and the Bucs upset the Pack, 38-28, with Freeman throwing for 215 yards and three touchdowns. The rookie would start the rest of the way and finish with 1,855 yards.
The three prolific seasons followed and after four years in Tampa Freeman already had 12,773 passing yards and a real crack at Testaverde's franchise record. However, after one season as the Bucs' head coach, Greg Schiano used a third-round draft pick on Mike Glennon, and that allowed him to bench Freeman after three rough starts in 2013. Freeman was later released before playing exactly two more NFL games, one in Minnesota in 2013 and one in Indianapolis in 2014.
Freeman's average of 2,706.8 passing yards per season as a Buccaneer is obviously dragged by that three-game run in his fifth and final year. Per game, he averaged 225.6 yards per game in 60 games, including one in relief.
- Trent Dilfer, 12,969 yards, 1994-99
Dilfer was the sixth-overall pick in the 1994 draft and the first quarterback to make a run at Testaverde's team record. As a rookie, he sat most of the season behind Craig Erickson, getting just two midseason starts, neither of which went particularly well. However, Erickson was traded to the Colts in 1995 and Dilfer got the opening-day job. From 1995 through the first half of 1999, Dilfer made 70 consecutive starts for the Buccaneers, and his 76 starts overall are the most by a quarterback in franchise history.
This durability and relatively long run as the starter is how Dilfer made it into the top five. His highest single-season yardage total was 2,859, in 1996, and that includes the subsequent seven seasons he spent with the Ravens, Seahawks, Browns and 49ers. He did top 2,500 yards for four seasons in a row and probably would have gotten there again in 1999 if not a season-ending shoulder injury suffered in Week 12, which paved the way for rookie Shaun King to take over.
Dilfer went to the Pro Bowl with the Buccaneers after their long-awaited turnaround season in 1997, in which he started every game and threw for 2,555 yards and 21 touchdowns. That would prove to be his lone Pro Bowl invitation, but he got a bigger prize with Baltimore when he was the starting quarterback for half the season and all of the playoffs as the Ravens powered their way through Super Bowl XXXV at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.
Dilfer averaged 2,161.5 passing yards over six seasons with the Buccaneers. His per-game average in 79 outings and 76 starts was 170.6 yards. He finished with 321 more career yards as a Buccaneer than Doug Williams to land at number five.
