Who will be the next Buc in Hall of Fame? February, 6, 2015 By Pat Yasinskas | ESPN.com 
TAMPA, Fla. -- The fact that coach Tony Dungy and safety John Lynch didn’t get elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame should serve as a dose of cold, hard reality for Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans. It might be a while before the Bucs get their next representative in the Hall of Fame. Maybe Lynch and/or Dungy slide in during a lean year, but maybe they keep coming close, but just short. Dungy and Lynch both have excellent qualifications. But you can also poke holes in the Hall of Fame arguments for each of them. Dungy won a lot of games with the Bucs and Indianapolis Colts, but he won only one Super Bowl despite having a great defense in Tampa Bay and Peyton Manning in Indianapolis. Lynch was the consummate hitter, but safeties usually are measured by interceptions. Lynch only had 26 of them. Tampa Bay fans are a little spoiled because Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks each made it in on the first ballot in the two previous years. It already has been shown that Dungy and Lynch are going to have a hard time getting in. If they don’t, who’s next from the Buccaneers? You can make a strong case for cornerback Ronde Barber, who will be eligible in two years. Barber’s durability allowed him to put up Hall of Fame numbers, but he might not be the automatic first-ballot choice that Tampa Bay fans believe he is. Outside of Tampa Bay, Barber is viewed a little differently. Scouts, coaches and players from other teams will tell you that Barber was a very good player. But he also is seen as someone who was a product of the system in the Tampa Two defense. They’ll also tell you teams didn’t have to game plan for Barber the way they did for Sapp and Brooks. Maybe Barber gets in, or maybe he joins Lynch and Dungy on the fence. If none of those three makes it, it could be another generation before the Bucs get their next representative. It could be current defensive tackle Gerald McCoy, who needs to string together a bunch more seasons like the last three. If that doesn’t happen, the next representative for the Bucs might be someone who hasn’t even joined the team yet.
