The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will begin the 50th season in franchise history in just weeks, and they will be relying on their core of star players to help deliver a record fifth-straight NFC South title, plus a shot at another Super Bowl championship.
The 2025 squad won't be the first Buccaneers team in the last half-century with lofty goals and the talented players needed to achieve them. Since 1976, more than 1,200 players have worn the Tampa Bay uniform during the regular season, 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 ready to be unveiled.
The Top 50 list has been determined and will be revealed over the course of the next 10 days, starting today with the players who landed in spots 50 to 41. We've also 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 50-41.
Without further ado, we present the first 10 players to be revealed as being among the 50 greatest in franchise history.
**50\. TE Rob Gronkowski, 2020-21**
Many of the players who will be revealed as this list progresses were Buccaneers for a long time, and for the majority of their NFL careers. That's not the case for Rob Gronkowski, who was already considered one of the greatest tight ends in league history when he arrived in Tampa, but his impact in just two seasons was great enough to get him into the top 50.
Gronkowski had retired following the 2018 season, his ninth with the New England Patriots, having already won three Super Bowl rings, but he chose to return to the game and to the sideline with his buddy Tom Brady, coming to Tampa via a trade. Over the next two seasons he caught 100 passes for 1,435 yards and 13 touchdowns and continued to display his elite blocking skills. In the postseason, Gronkowski added another three touchdowns, including the first two scored by the Buccaneers in their Super Bowl VL victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.
**49\. K Martin Gramatica, 1999-2004**
The Buccaneers used a third-round pick in the 1999 draft on Kansas State kicker Martin Gramatica and got everything they were bargaining for and much more. Even the best kicking specialists for any franchise would have a hard time cracking that team's top 50 list of players, but Gramatica's impact on the franchise during its first Super Bowl era and his status as an all-time fan favorite made him a shoo-in for the Buccaneers' list.
Gramatica finished his career as the Buccaneers' all-time leading scorer with 592 points and still easily outpaces all other kickers in team history, though Hall of Fame-bound wide receiver Mike Evans has since hoovered up that franchise record among his many others. Gramatica was known for his clutch kicking and his passionate celebrations after every success. During the 2002 Super Bowl season, the Buccaneers won two games in which Gramatica scored their only points, making his efforts instrumental in gaining a first-round bye. A Pro Bowl selection in 2000, he made 17 of his 27 career attempts from 50 yards and beyond and is the team's all-time leader in field goals made (137), field goal attempts (179), extra points made (181) and extra point attempts (183).
**48\. TE Cameron Brate, 2014-22**
Cam Brate turned humble NFL roots into one of the best careers ever for a Buccaneers tight end. Undrafted out of Harvard, he needed a tryout to earn a contract as a rookie and spent much of his first year-and-a-half in the league bouncing between the practice squad and the active roster – and even a brief stint with the Saints – before fully establishing himself as an important part of the Buccaneers' offense. The arrow only pointed up after that.
After catching 27 passes in his quasi-rookie season of 2015, Brate exploded for 57 receptions, 660 yards and eight touchdowns in 2016. Over a three-year period from 2016-18, his 20 touchdown catches ranked second in the entire NFL behind only Travis Kelce. A hard-nosed red-zone threat, Brate caught at least 20 passes for eight straight seasons and finished with 273 grabs for 2,857 yards and 33 scores. He ranks second all-time to Buccaneers Ring of Honor member Jimmie Giles among all tight ends in franchise history in both catches and touchdowns, both by very slim margins. And, of course, Brate helped cement his spot in Buccaneers lore by making a clutch catch of Tom Brady's Super Bowl boat parade toss of the Lombardi Trophy.
**47\. T Donald Penn, 2006-13**
Very few players in Buccaneers history have responded more impressively to a high-pressure introduction to the league than Donald Penn. Originally an undrafted free agent with the Minnesota Vikings in 2016, Penn was signed by the Buccaneers later that year but didn't see any game action. The Bucs signed veteran Luke Petitgout to be their left tackle in 2017 but Petitgout suffered a torn ACL in Week Four and Penn, who to that point had seen a handful of snaps on special teams, became the starting blindside protector for quarterback Jeff Garcia on a team with playoff aspirations.
Penn was up to the challenge, starting the next 12 games as the Buccaneers did indeed make it to the postseason as NFC South champs. That was just the beginning, as the Utah State product would go on to lock down one of the most important positions on the field for seven years, eventually starting 108 consecutive games for the franchise. He was an emotional tone-setter on the field for the Bucs' line as a play-to-the-whistle competitor, and he had some additional offensive talents as well. The Bucs threw him three passes during his tenure in Tampa, and he caught two of them for touchdowns.
**46\. TE Dave Moore, 1992-2001, 2004-06**
More recent Buccaneer fans probably know Dave Moore as an excellent color analyst on the team's radio broadcast network, a role he has filled for the past 18 years. But that is just the second chapter of a career that included playing 13 seasons in the Bay area and 190 games, the fourth most by any player in franchise history. Among offensive players, no one has taken the field for the Buccaneers more often than Moore.
Moore achieved this incredible franchise relevance through his willingness to take on any role and to play through every bump and bruise. To help his cause in making the roster in the early 1990s, he picked up long-snapping, a job that would later earn him Pro Bowl honors in his final season in the NFL. On offense, he was a savvy threat, particularly in the red zone; his 24 touchdown catches represent more than 10 percent of his overall receptions with the Buccaneers. And as far as signature moments go, Moore's one-handed touchdown catch that sparked a huge comeback win in the first game played in Raymond James Stadium is one of the more memorable plays in franchise history.
**45\. RB Ricky Bell, 1977-81**
Ricky Bell, the first-overall pick in the 1977 draft, quickly became the engine of the Buccaneers' offense in the franchise's first playoff era. While a rare disease cut both his life and his NFL career short, his peak made him the first great running back in team history.
In 1979, Bell turned in the Buccaneers' first 1,000-yard rushing season, turning 283 carries into 1,263 yards and seven touchdowns, with a career-high average of 4.5 yards per carry. A true workhorse, he powered an offense that ranked eighth in the NFL in rushing but just 24th in passing. In the playoffs, Bell was _the_ offense in Tampa Bay's first playoff contest and victory, setting a then-NFL record with 38 carries for 142 yards and two touchdowns. Overall, Bell played five seasons in Tampa and finished with 3,057 rushing yards, 3,905 yards from scrimmage and 19 touchdowns.
**44\. RB Doug Martin, 2012-17**
The Buccaneers traded back up into the bottom of the first round in the 2012 draft in order to land Boise State's Doug Martin, and the move paid immediate dividends. Martin's 1,454 rushing yards and 1,926 yards from scrimmage that season were the most in team history by a rookie running back, and both totals also ranks second all-time in the Bucs' record book.
Martin ran into injury issues in his next two seasons but in 2015 he re-emerged as one of the NFL's most electric backs. On his way to first-team _Associated Press_ All-Pro honors – the only time a Tampa Bay running back has ever won that award – Martin ran for 1,402 yards and averaged 4.9 yards per tote. With that output, Martin became the only player in team history with multiple seasons of 1,400-plus rushing yards. Overall, Martin ran for 4,633 yards in six seasons with the Buccaneers, the fourth-highest total in franchise annals. In addition to his career achievements, Martin also produced the single best game by a running back in team history when he exploded for 251 yards and four touchdowns in his hometown of Oakland during his rookie campaign.
**43\. OLB Jason Pierre-Paul, 2018-21**
Seeking to juice up the team's pass rush, General Manager Jason Licht made a bold move early in the 2018 offseason, sending a third-round draft pick to the New York Giants to get two-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Jason Pierre-Paul. The former Super Bowl standout offered immediate returns on the deal, leading the Buccaneers with 12.5 sacks in 2018, thus producing the first double-digit sack season for the team since 2005.
Pierre-Paul would go on to be a key component of a defense that peaked during the 2020 Super Bowl championship season, particularly in the postseason. In all, he recorded 33.0 sacks in four seasons with the team, plus another 2.5 in playoff action and also had 35 tackles for loss, 55 quarterback hits, eight forced fumbles and even two interceptions. Pierre-Paul was also a tone-setter for the Bucs' defense and a player who essentially refused to leave the field. Over his first three seasons with the Buccaneers he played approximately 87% of the team's defensive snaps, a number normally unheard of for edge rushers.
**42\. LB Cecil Johnson, 1977-85**
Starved for talent in the early years of their existence, in an era not conducive for expansion teams trying to build a roster, the Buccaneers found a gem in their second year when they signed linebacker Cecil Johnson as an undrafted free agent out of Pittsburgh. Johnson immediately emerged as one of the team's best defenders, not only making the team as a rookie but jumping immediately into a starting role.
In his first five seasons in Tampa, Johnson started all but one of the 82 games in which he appeared and was consistently among the team's leading tacklers. In 1981, he produced what remains one of the best seasons by a defender in team history, combining 174 tackles with five interceptions and one sack. Those 174 tackles set a then-team record, which stood until Hardy Nickerson came along in the 1990s. Johnson also had the distinction of being the last player who participated in the franchise's first victory in 1977 to remain on the team when he played the 1985 season.
**41\. C Ryan Jensen, 2018-23**
In the same offseason that the Buccaneers added Pierre-Paul they also found a critical component for the other side of the trenches by signing former Baltimore Ravens center Ryan Jensen. In his first opportunity to start for a full season in Baltimore, Jensen had emerged as one of the league's best at his position just before hitting free agency. The Buccaneers eagerly pounced with a four-year deal that made him the league's highest-paid player at his position.
Jensen fit in perfectly as the anchor for the Bucs' offensive line, bringing his self-proclaimed "nasty" demeanor to the field, setting the emotional tone for the offense. Over the next five seasons (after finishing his first contract he landed another three-year deal with the team), Jensen started every game at the pivot, including the postseason. In 2021, he made the Pro Bowl for the first time, one of three members of a powerful Bucs' offensive line to make it to the all-star game. An unfortunate knee injury in training camp the following summer cost him the 2022 regular season, though he fought hard to make a surprising return to the field in the postseason. Unfortunately, that injury proved to be career-ending, but not before Jensen had left a lasting impression on the franchise and team culture.