This week, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are wrapping up their offseason program with a three-day minicamp, drawing them one step closer to the start of the 2025 season. That's a landmark campaign for the franchise, which will be playing its 50th season this fall. The Buccaneers and Seattle Seahawks started play in 1976 as the 27th and 28th NFL franchises, respectively and are now nearly a half-century into their history. 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 Pro Bowl players, specifically, the players who have been to the most of them. We are only considering the all-star games these players went to as a Buccaneer. For instance, the nine overall Pro Bowl appearances that John Lynch earned definitely served as a key entry in his Hall of Fame résumé, but four of those came in his four seasons in Denver following his Buccaneer tenure. That actually leaves Lynch just on the outside of the top-five list below; he is one of three Bucs in the five-Pro Bowl Club, along with fellow Hall of Famer Rondé Barber and former linebacking great Hardy Nickerson, but there are six players in franchise history with six or more.
Also worth noting: The all-time leader in Pro Bowl nods is quarterback Tom Brady, a Super Bowl champion with the Buccaneers, but only one of his 15 selections came in during his three-year stint in Tampa.
The Five Buccaneers with the Most Pro Bowl Selections
- Linebacker Derrick Brooks, 11 Pro Bowls
Brooks is not only the Buccaneers' all-time leader in Pro Bowl selections but one of the most decorated all-stars in NFL history. His 11 all-star nods has him tied for the 16th most in league annals, alongside the likes of fellow Hall of Famers Jonathan Ogden, Rod Woodson and Brett Favre. Brooks went into the Hall of Fame in 2014, his first year on the ballot.
The 28th-overall pick in the 1995 draft, Brooks began his Pro Bowl run in 1997, his third season. When the Buccaneers turned the franchise around and ended a 14-year playoff drought that season, Brooks was one of eight players on the team to be voted into the Pro Bowl. That was more than the total number of Pro Bowl invitations Buccaneer players got over 13 years from 1984 through 1996.
Once Brooks got his first Pro Bowl selection, he became a fixture in Hawaii, where the game was held for decades. He made it 10 years in a row, through 2006, then got back in after the 2008 season, his last in the NFL. He was even named Pro Bowl MVP in the game following the 2005 season thanks to a 59-yard pick-six that turned the tide in an uncharacteristically low-scoring all-star game won 23-17 by the NFC.
The Pro Bowls are only the beginning of Brooks' incredible list of NFL accolades which also includes the NFL Defensive Player of the Year award in 2002 and the Walter Payton Man of the Year award, which he shared with the Chicago Bears Jim Flanigan in 2000. And, obviously, the bronze bust in Canton is the single greatest honor Brooks achieved.
- Defensive Tackle Warren Sapp, 7 Pro Bowls
One year before Brooks made it into the Hall of Fame, Sapp became the first first-ballot selection in Buccaneers history, joining the Class of 2013. His seven Pro Bowl selections certainly didn't hurt when voters were debating his Canton candidacy.
Like his long-time teammate, Sapp first made the Pro Bowl in 1997, after which it became an annual honor for the better part of a decade. He made it every year from '97 through 2003 and was also either a first or second-team Associated Press All-Pro in six of those seven seasons. While he finished his career with four seasons in Oakland, all seven of Sapp's Pro Bowl campaigns came in a Buccaneers uniform, which means he only had two seasons in Tampa that did not end in Hawaii.
Sapp also won an NFL Defensive Player of the Year award, getting his honor in 1999 when he racked up 12.5 sacks and powered a ferocious defense that nearly dragged the Buccaneers all the way to the Super Bowl. He actually topped that with 16.5 sacks the next year and finished third in the DPOTY balloting.
3t. Fullback Mike Alstott, 6 Pro Bowls
Alstott was the first offensive player in franchise history to earn at least five Pro Bowl selections, let alone six, and he remains tied for the most such honors for an offensive player in Buccaneer annals.
Just like Sapp, Alstott first got a plane ticket to Hawaii in 1997 and then made all of his Pro Bowl trips in a row, with his streak capped in 2002. However, he got that first all-star invitation in just his second season after arriving as a second-round draft pick in 1996.
Both Alstott and his "Thunder & Lightning" backfield partner Warrick Dunn made their first Pro Bowls in '97, Dunn as a rookie. After a rookie season in which he rushed for 377 yards but also led the team with 65 receptions, Alstott got more involved in the Bucs' rushing attack in his second season, paring 665 yards with another 178 through the air and scoring a total of 10 touchdowns. He would then rush for 846 yards in 1998 and a career-best 948 in 1999, providing a level of ground game production few fullbacks ever matched.
Alstott's Pro Bowl-filled career was primarily known for two things: Scoring touchdowns (71 of them), often on second and third efforts, and creating one of the NFL's best highlight reels with his tackle-breaking runs. Still one of the most popular figures in franchise history, Alstott was also the NFL's torch-bearer at the fullback position for the majority of his career.
3t. Wide Receiver Mike Evans, 6 Pro Bowls
Three years after breaking Alstott's franchise touchdown record in 2021, Evans also gave the star fullback company in the Pro Bowl department. Evans' all-star selection last season, his third in the last four years, was his sixth overall, putting him in a tie for the most such honors by an offensive player in team history. And, of course, Evans still has time to add to his all-star trophy case.
Evans has famously set a league record with 11 straight 1,000-yard receiving seasons to open his career, which is now also tied with the G.O.A.T. Jerry Rice for the longest such streak at any point in a player's career. Now the Buccaneers' all-time leader in receptions, receiving yards, touchdown receptions, total touchdowns, points scored and 100-yard receiving games, Evans is almost certainly destined to be the first offensive player to make the Hall of Fame after playing all or most of his career in Tampa.
Evans first got a Pro Bowl invitation after 2016, his third season in the league after he was drafted seventh overall in 2014. He set a career high that year with 96 catches, resulting in 1,321 yards and a dozen touchdowns. Two years later he was back in the all-star game after putting up a career-best 1,524 yards on 86 grabs and scoring eight more times. His other Pro Bowl trips came in 2019, 2021, 2023 and 2024.
3t. Defensive Tackle Gerald McCoy, 6 Pro Bowls
McCoy was taken with the third-overall pick in 2010 and proceeded to deliver on that lofty draft status with a half-dozen Pro Bowl selections. All but three of his nine seasons in Tampa ended with an extra game at the end and he was also an All-Pro choice three times, including once on the first team.
Like Sapp and Brooks, McCoy first made it to the Pro Bowl in his third NFL campaign, as he finished the 2012 season with 5.0 sacks and 15 quarterback hits. The next year, his sack total ballooned to a career-high 9.5 and he was once again invited to the Pro Bowl. He would repeat that honor every season from 2012 through 2017. In 2014 he was the only Buccaneer to make the trip to Hawaii and in three other seasons he was one of just two Tampa Bay players to get an invite.
From 2013 through 2017, McCoy averaged just under eight sacks per season, on his way to 54.5 as a Buccaneer, the fourth most in franchise history.
3t. Defensive End Lee Roy Selmon, 6 Pro Bowls
The original Buccaneer superstar defender, Selmon was just the second player in team history to earn a Pro Bowl invitation, following defensive tackle David Pear's selection in 1978. Selmon was the first-overall pick in the 1976 NFL draft and the first college draft pick in franchise history, but it surprisingly took four years for the league to vote him into a Pro Bowl. He was limited by injuries to eight games and 5.0 sacks as a rookie but then exploded for a career-high 13.0 in 1977 without an all-star nod.
Selmon's Pro Bowl breakthrough came after an 11-sack campaign in 1979, a season in which he was named NFL Defensive Player of the Year while leading the four-year-old Buccaneers to the top of the league's defensive rankings. Selmon also led Tampa Bay to its first playoff appearance that season and had two more sacks in two postseason contests.
Like a majority of the players on this list, Selmon earned all of his Pro Bowl selections in consecutive seasons, from 1977 through 1984. That run likely would have continued but Selmon suffered a neck injury in his last Pro Bowl game, spent 1985 on injured reserve and then retired. He would become the Buccaneers' first Hall of Famer when he was voted in as part of the Class of 1995. Selmon is also the Buccaneers' all-time leader with 78.5 sacks, counting the ones with which he was credited before the sack became an official NFL statistic in 1982.
