The Bucs are entering their 50th season since first donning the Bucco Bruce helmet and creamsicle uniforms in 1976. So it’s only fitting that Pewter Report unveils its Top 50 All-Time Bucs list.

The Buccaneers asked yours truly, Scott Reynolds, to provide my Top 50 list to the team for their media poll and I’ve decided to release my rankings to you over the next two weeks in the form of 10 articles – each with five Bucs greats. My list contains 25 Super Bowl champions – either from the 2002 or 2020 teams – as well as nine members of the 2025 team.

Top 50 All-Time Bucs: 16-20
Top 50 All-Time Bucs: 21-25
Top 50 All-Time Bucs: 26-30
Top 50 All-Time Bucs: 31-35
Top 50 All-Time Bucs: 36-40
Top 50 All-Time Bucs: 41-45
Top 50 All-Time Bucs: 46-50

So let’s continue with the next five players who make up the Top 50 All-Time Bucs and we’ll finish with the top 5 at the end of this series.

All-Time Bucs: 11-15

No. 11 – QB Tom Brady
The GOAT Made The Bucs Great Again

When Tom Brady chose Tampa Bay in free agency in 2020, it felt like fantasy football – but in real life. Yes, the GOAT actually picked the Buccaneers – the same franchise that hadn’t made the playoffs in 12 years. Three seasons later, Brady retired after winning another Super Bowl ring, two NFC South titles, and rewriting the Bucs record book.

Brady’s debut with the Bucs was electric. At 43 years old, he threw for 4,633 yards and 40 touchdowns in 2020. Then he torched teams in the postseason with 10 more TDs, including three in the first half of Super Bowl LV, leading the Bucs to a 31-9 beatdown of the Chiefs at Raymond James Stadium. It was the first Super Bowl win by a team playing in its home stadium, and Brady was named Super Bowl MVP for the fifth time.

Former Bucs QB Tom Brady – Photo by: USA Today

In 2021, Brady somehow got better, passing for a franchise-record 5,316 yards and 43 touchdowns, leading the NFL in both categories and earning second-team All-Pro honors at age 44. He also set the Bucs’ single-season records for completions (485), attempts (719), and yards.

Even in 2022 – amid a messy divorce and a shaky O-line – Brady came out of a brief retirement and still led the league in completions (490) as he dragged Tampa Bay to a second-straight NFC South title, albeit with an 8-9 record. He became the first player in NFL history to throw for over 100,000 career yards (regular + postseason) that year.

His three-year run with the Bucs? 14,643 yards, 108 passing TDs, and only 33 INTs, plus a 35-18 regular-season record and a 5-2 mark in the playoffs. Brady retired “for good” in early 2023, but his legacy in Tampa Bay will last forever.

He didn’t just win a ring despite the odds with a new team during the middle of a COVID-19 pandemic, he changed the culture in Tampa Bay, turned the Bucs into a prime-time force, and gave fans a front-row seat to greatness. Tampa Bay got the GOAT, and Brady delivered as he always did.

No. 12 – WR Chris Godwin
From Slot Sparkplug To Bucs’ Go-To Guy

Chris Godwin has quietly morphed into the Bucs’ most complete receiver – technical, clutch, and utterly reliable. A third-round pick in 2017 out of Penn State, he played all 16 games as a rookie and exploded onto the scene with 34 catches for 525 yards and his first touchdown. By Week 17, he was hauling in big-time catches, and his season culminated with a 100-yard day and the game-winning play against the Saints, which earned him NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors.

When Bruce Arians came to Tampa Bay in 2019, Godwin was ready to break out as the featured slot receiver in Arians’ vertical passing attack. With 86 catches, 1,333 yards, and nine touchdowns, Godwin vaulted into the Pro Bowl for the first time and became the engine for the Bucs offense. That season, he was third in the NFL in receiving yards and tied for fifth in TDs.

Bucs WR Chris Godwin – Photo by: USA Today

From 2019–23, he racked up 579 catches, 7,266 yards, and 39 receiving TDs, plus a couple rushing scores, ranking in the top seven in receptions and TDs league-wide. Godwin hit 1,000+ yards three years in a row (2021–23), joining Mike Evans as the only duo in Bucs history to do that.

Godwin has 20 regular-season 100-yard games, which is the second-most in team history behind Evans, and four multi-TD games since 2019, which is tied for second in franchise annals. He set a single-game franchise record with 15 receptions against Atlanta in December 2021.

In the Bucs’ Super Bowl LV season, Godwin was clutch. He had five catches for 110 yards in the NFC Championship Game and added playoff ball security before earning the ring. Godwin’s resilience stands out – from his 2019’s emergence to coming back from a torn ACL/MCL in 2021 to surpass 1,000 yards twice more. Now he’s set to rebound once more from a 2024 ankle injury that curtailed his hot start to the season after 50 catches, 576 yards, and five TDs in just seven games.

Off the field, loyalty defines him. In March 2025, Godwin turned down a richer offer from New England, opting for a three-year, $66 million deal with Tampa Bay because of his allegiance to the Bucs organization and his teammates. A reception machine, a postseason performer, the perfect complement to Evans, and a Bucs cornerstone. Godwin is Tampa Bay through and through.

No. 13 – TE Jimmie Giles
The Deep‑Threat Tight End Who Put The Bucs On The Map

Jimmie Giles was Tampa Bay’s first true offensive star at tight end. Part blocker, part deep threat, and all attitude. Acquired in a 1978 trade from Houston, Giles emerged fast and furious, quietly rewriting Buccaneers history.

From 1978-86 with the Bucs, Giles hauled in 279 catches for 4,300 yards – an impressive 15.4 yards per reception – and 34 touchdowns. Those TDs are still the all-time franchise record for a tight end and still third overall behind Mike Evans (105) and Chris Godwin (39).

Former Bucs TE Jimmie Giles – Photo courtesy of the Buccaneers

A four-time Pro Bowl pick (1980-82, 1985) and two-time All‑NFC/All‑Pro selection, Giles terrorized secondaries with deep-ball receptions few expected from a 6‑foot-3, 240‑pound tight end. In 1980, he led all tight ends with a gaudy 18.2-yard receiving average, and in 1981 he posted a career-best 45 catches for 786 yards, including a jaw-dropping 81-yard TD, one of the longest tight end receptions in team annals.

Giles’ highlight reel peaked in 1985 with an epic four touchdowns in one game against Miami, which still stands as a franchise single-game record. But Giles wasn’t just a stats machine. He was a tough-as-nails blocker, sealing edges for heavy-hitting running backs like Ricky Bell and James Wilder. Inducted into the Bucs Ring of Honor in 2011 as the first offensive player, Giles remains the benchmark for tight end performance in Tampa Bay history.

In a run-heavy era of NFL football, Giles was a rare mismatch. He brought the deep ball to the Bucs before it was cool, and his impact still echoes in Tampa Bay today as the franchise’s best-ever tight end.

No. 14 – LT Paul Gruber
The Foundational Tackle Of The Bucs’ Franchise

Consistency is king in football, and Paul Gruber ruled Tampa Bay’s trenches for over a decade. Drafted fourth overall in 1988 out of Wisconsin, Gruber quickly became the Bucs left tackle and began a spectacular – yet underrated – career. He started every game he played, racking up 183 consecutive starts over 12 seasons, which set a franchise record until legendary linebacker Derrick Brooks surpassed it in 2007.

In 1989, Gruber went the entire season without a single holding penalty, and across the 1990-92 seasons, he earned second-team All-Pro honors twice (1991, 1992) and made PFWA All-Rookie Team in 1988. He was also named a Pro Bowl alternate in 1997 yet never made the Pro Bowl once, which was a crime – and his penalty for playing on some really bad Bucs teams. Despite playing through some of the franchise’s darkest years, which featured nine straight losing seasons to begin his career, Gruber quietly held the line as the team started to climb towards relevance.

By the time Tampa Bay ended its playoff drought in the 1997 season, Gruber had cemented his place as one of the biggest long-term investments in franchise history. In 1999, when the Bucs finally made a run to the NFC Championship Game, he suffered a broken leg in the regular-season finale. Unfortunately, that injury ended his career and prevented him from suiting up for that playoff push.

When he retired in 2000, Gruber’s legacy was already secure: 183 games played and started – both team records – and a rare model of reliability. In 2012, Gruber joined the Bucs Ring of Honor as the fourth inductee, acknowledging his durable service and clutch presence along the offensive line.

Paul Gruber wound up being the second-best offensive tackle in Tampa Bay history behind Tristan Wirfs. He was a steady force, a locker-room leader, and the quiet cornerstone upon which the 1990s Bucs began to rebuild. His career is a tribute to grit, consistency, and professionalism. He’s an underappreciated legend who deserves every bit of his enduring legacy.

No. 15 – OLB Shaq Barrett
From Undrafted Underdog To Super Bowl Sackmaster

When outside linebacker Shaquil “Shaq” Barrett arrived on a one-year, $4 million prove-it deal in 2019 his signing barely made a ripple in Tampa Bay. As an undrafted free agent out of Colorado State in 2014, Barrett was a backup edge rusher in Denver who totaled just 14 sacks in four years.

But Barrett’s first season in Tampa Bay turned into a tidal wave of sacks – 19.5 to be exact. That not only broke Warren Sapp’s single-season franchise record of 16.5, but also led the league that year. Barrett also forced six fumbles that year and made his first Pro Bowl while earning the franchise tag in the process.

Former Bucs OLB Shaquil Barrett and Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes – Photo by: USA Today

After arriving in Tampa Bay with a Super Bowl ring from Super Bowl 50 with the Broncos, Barrett helped the Bucs win Super Bowl LV in 2020 with eight sacks during the season and adding four more in the postseason, including one of Patrick Mahomes to win the Lombardi Trophy. He cashed in on a four-year, $72 million deal in the 2021 offseason and made his second Pro Bowl that year with a 10-sack season as Tampa Bay won a franchise-best 13 games.

By the end of his Bucs career, Barrett had racked up 250 tackles, 48 tackles for loss, 45 sacks, 15 forced fumbles, two recoveries, and three interceptions, including one he returned for a touchdown. Yet Barrett’s story wasn’t all rosy.

His roller coaster career included a torn Achilles in 2022, and the tragic death of his 2‑year‑old daughter in 2023 to a drowning accident. Barrett was retired for much of 2024, but came back to play the last couple of games for Tampa Bay at age 32.

Barrett’s 45 sacks rank fifth in franchise history, but his impact as a pass rusher is rivaled by him being a glue guy in the locker room and in the community. The Bucs don’t win Super Bowl LV – or even reach the championship game – without his relentless attitude and uncanny knack of getting the quarterback on the ground. Barrett is the third-best edge rusher in franchise history behind Hall of Famer Lee Roy Selmon and Simeon Rice.