4 Greatest Bucs Ring Of Honor Candidates For 2024

In 2023, the Bucs elected to not add a brand new member to their Ring of Honor inside Raymond James Stadium. And as of proper now, it seems that they’re nonetheless evaluating their choices relating to an induction – and if there’ll be one in any respect – in 2024.

The Bucs Ring of Honor choices finally come right down to the Glazer Household, and Joel Glazer didn’t give a lot away when requested Tuesday a couple of potential Bucs Ring of Honor inductee for the upcoming season.

“Yearly, it’s checked out,” Glazer stated on the NFL Annual Assembly in Orlando. “We had a string of a whole lot of years in a row the place we had anyone. So it’ll be year-to-year making these choices, and this yr will probably be no totally different than another. We’ll be having a look at it.”

Bucs GM Jason Licht and proprietor Joel Glazer – Picture by: Cliff Welch/PR

The Glazer Household has no scarcity of choices to select from proper now, as there are some prime candidates who’re loads deserving of the glory. And it’s not as if returning to 1 per yr goes to imply operating out of worthy choices within the close to future, both.

Linebacker Lavonte David and vast receiver Mike Evans are Bucs Ring of Honor locks from the present roster, plus there are just a few guys who’re heading in the right direction towards receiving that honor every time they end their careers (particularly Tristan Wirfs and doubtlessly Chris Godwin and Antoine Winfield Jr.).

At this level, basic supervisor Jason Licht has a case himself.

So, the Bucs ought to get again to honoring their historical past this season with a brand new inductee – the primary since former head coach and Tremendous Bowl LV winner Bruce Arians on the finish of the 2022 season.

Defensive finish Lee Roy Selmon, head coach John McKay, tight finish Jimmie Giles, left deal with Paul Gruber, defensive deal with Warren Sapp, linebacker Derrick Brooks, fullback Mike Alstott, quarterback Doug Williams, robust security John Lynch, proprietor Malcolm Glazer, head coach Tony Dungy, cornerback Ronde Barber, defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin and Arians have their names enshrined inside Raymond James Stadium. Listed here are 4 sure-fire candidates who ought to be a part of them.

Simeon Rice Is Lengthy Overdue For The Bucs Ring Of Honor

Former Bucs DE Simeon Rice – Picture by: Cliff Welch/PR

The 2002 Bucs boasted the most effective defenses in NFL historical past, because the unit included 4 Professional Soccer Corridor of Famers in Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks, John Lynch and Ronde Barber. All 4 have additionally been inducted into the Bucs Ring of Honor. There’s one other main standout from that Tampa Bay protection whose Corridor of Fame case has been debated, however there ought to be zero debate by any means about his Ring of Honor candidacy. That, in fact, is defensive finish Simeon Rice.

Rice, one of the prolific cross rushers in franchise historical past, first joined the Bucs by way of free company in 2001. He had beforehand racked up 51.5 sacks in 5 years with the Cardinals, and it wouldn’t be lengthy earlier than he began constructing his legacy in Tampa Bay. Throughout his first yr with the Bucs, Rice totaled 11 sacks, 16 tackles for loss, eight passes defensed and two pressured fumbles. He then had a two-sack sport within the playoffs. But it surely was the yr after, in the course of the franchise’s first-ever Tremendous Bowl season, when he acquired even higher.

Throughout that 2002 marketing campaign, Rice posted 15.5 sacks, 12 tackles for loss, 11 passes defensed and an interception on his approach to incomes Professional Bowl and first-team All-Professional honors. He went on to tally 4 sacks in the course of the Bucs’ run to Tremendous Bowl XXXVII, with two of these coming within the 48-21 Tremendous Bowl victory over the Raiders.

Rice made one other Professional Bowl in 2003 with a season that included 15 extra sacks, in addition to two interceptions, eight passes defensed, a fumble restoration, and six pressured fumbles. Whereas he would miss the Professional Bowl in his subsequent two seasons, he nonetheless notched double-digit sacks in each 2004 and 2005 with 12 and 14, respectively.

Over the course of six seasons with the Bucs, Rice totaled 69.5 sacks – the third-most in Bucs historical past – in addition to 67 tackles for loss, 19 pressured fumbles and 4 interceptions in 87 common season video games (all begins). He additionally completed with seven sacks and 4 pressured fumbles in 5 playoff video games with Tampa Bay. With two Professional Bowls, an All-Professional and a Tremendous Bowl with the Bucs, Rice deserves to have his place cemented in franchise historical past with a Ring of Honor induction ceremony.

Hardy Nickerson Shouldn’t Go Underappreciated For A lot Longer

Former Bucs LBs Hardy Nickerson and Derrick Brooks – Picture by: Cliff Welch/PR

If you identify the very best free agent signings in Bucs historical past, Hardy Nickerson ought to at all times be close to the highest of the listing. After six seasons with the Steelers, Nickerson signed with Tampa Bay in 1993 and would go on to be one of many largest culture-changers in franchise historical past. He laid the groundwork for the shift that the franchise went via later within the Nineties, and whereas doing that, he additionally performed some rattling good soccer.

He was a Professional Bowler and First Crew All-Professional in 1993, a season that noticed him rack up a single-season franchise report 214 tackles – a report that also stands 30 years later. He added a pressured fumble, fumble restoration, interception and a sack as he completed sixth in Defensive Participant of the Yr voting.

Nickerson surpassed the 120-tackle mark in 5 of his seven seasons in Tampa Bay and adopted up his Professional Bowl season in 1993 by making the Professional Bowl in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999. He added one other All-Professional honor in 1997 because the Bucs made the playoffs for the primary time since 1982, then he had his ultimate Professional Bowl season in 1999 when Tampa Bay reached the NFC Championship Recreation. It’s a disgrace he wasn’t round when the Bucs lastly broke via and received Tremendous Bowl XXXVII, however his impression might nonetheless be felt at the same time as he wrapped up his profession with two seasons in Jacksonville and one marketing campaign in Inexperienced Bay.

The late nice Mark Cook dinner as soon as wrote in a June 2021 version of The Hook that as a lot as Nickerson did on the sector with the Bucs and as many accolades as he amassed – 5 Professional Bowls and two first-team All-Professionals in these seven seasons – his largest contribution might have been the successful mentality that he dropped at the middling Bucs from his time in Pittsburgh. Cook dinner stated it greatest again then:

“And Nickerson doesn’t get practically the credit score he deserves for the turnaround the franchise had within the late 90’s. Whereas all of us level to Tony Dungy, Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks because the catalysts for the change in fortunes in Tampa Bay, make no mistake, it began with Nickerson, who helped information the way in which to respectability.”

It’s time that Nickerson is acknowledged each for that contribution and the excellent participant he was for Tampa Bay.

Tom Brady’s Time With The Bucs Was Quick, However His Affect Was Tremendous

Bucs QB Tom Brady – Picture by: USA At the moment

That is the one which a whole lot of Bucs followers are able to skip proper to as quickly as potential. It was a brief three-year tenure for Tom Brady with the Bucs, however what a three-year tenure it was. When Brady turned a free agent for the primary time in his profession, he selected to go away New England and virtually unbelievably signed with Tampa Bay.

After all, he was drawn to the roster that basic supervisor Jason Licht had constructed with head coach Bruce Arians, nevertheless it virtually felt like one thing out of a Buccaneers fan’s wildest desires. The best quarterback of all time coming to swimsuit up in crimson and pewter?

That first season for Brady in Tampa noticed him lead the Bucs via the unprecedented occasions of the pandemic and carry them to a late-season surge that noticed them go from 7-5 to 11-5. The crew made the playoffs for the primary time since 2007, and what adopted was a very magical run. Brady and the Bucs received at Washington within the Wild Card spherical. Then, they received at New Orleans within the NFC Divisional Spherical earlier than being highway warriors once more and rising victorious at Inexperienced Bay within the NFC Championship Recreation.

That arrange a house Tremendous Bowl at Raymond James Stadium, which the Bucs received in convincing trend over Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, 31-9. Tampa Bay turned the primary crew to ever win the Tremendous Bowl in its dwelling stadium and in a single yr, Brady had introduced the losingest franchise within the historical past of the 4 main U.S. sports activities to the highest of the league. He completed because the Tremendous Bowl LV MVP with three first half touchdowns.

Brady adopted that up by giving them an ideal probability to repeat in 2021, as he led the Bucs to a 13-4 report – the very best in franchise historical past – earlier than a heartbreaking loss within the NFC Divisional Spherical. His ultimate season in 2022 didn’t have the identical heights, nevertheless it didn’t even come near taking away simply how a lot he got here to imply to Bucs followers and the group as an entire.

Brady is definitely the very best quarterback in franchise historical past and in simply three years, he entered the High 5 in most quarterback classes. In 50 common season video games over three years, he threw for 14,643 yards (third-most in crew historical past), 108 touchdowns (second-most), 1,376 completions (second) and totaled 32 wins (third). He helped the franchise to its second-ever Lombardi Trophy, bringing them out of irrelevance and into the nationwide highlight.

The Brady Period was an electrical whirlwind of a dream, and the G.O.A.T. will probably be beloved in Tampa Bay endlessly. The day that he joins the Bucs Ring of Honor, you may wager that Raymond James Stadium will probably be packed to the highest and rocking in a means that’s becoming for an NFL – and Bucs – icon.

Gene Deckerhoff Ought to Be The Bucs Ring Of Honor’s First Radio Voice

Gene Deckerhoff – Picture courtesy of the Buccaneers

The Bucs Ring of Honor consists of 9 gamers, three head coaches, a defensive coordinator and an proprietor. It’s time that it additionally included the longtime voice of the crew, and that’s Gene Deckerhoff. Deckerhoff has been the radio voice of the Bucs since 1989 and simply accomplished his thirty fifth season calling the crew’s video games. His voice is synonymous with Buccaneers soccer for therefore many followers, and he’s had a number of the most iconic calls in franchise historical past through the years.

As Tampa Bay rose up the ranks below Tony Dungy within the late Nineties and early 2000s, Deckerhoff’s iconic voice introduced followers proper into the most important moments. He then known as the Bucs’ first Tremendous Bowl victory when Jon Gruden got here to city in 2002.

He proclaimed Matt Bryant as his hero when Bryant nailed a game-winning 62-yard subject aim to beat the Eagles in 2006. His voice nonetheless introduced pleasure to followers even within the worst of years, after which he acquired to name the Tom Brady period, which yielded the franchise’s second Lombardi Trophy. And most not too long ago, he known as the thrilling 2023 season that included a 5-1 stretch to shut the common season and a Wild Card win over Philadelphia.

Deckerhoff pulled double responsibility for a lot of his Bucs tenure, as he additionally served because the voice of Florida State athletics from 1979-2022. He was inducted into the Florida Sports activities Corridor of Fame in 2022 and it was not too long ago introduced that he’ll be part of the inaugural class of the Florida Broadcasters Corridor of Fame later this yr. The honors ought to maintain stacking up for the crew’s legendary voice, too.

Deckerhoff hasn’t publicly introduced whether or not he intends to return in 2024 for a thirty sixth season within the sales space, however whether or not he does or not, he’s an establishment for Bucs followers and deserves to be immortalized alongside the opposite franchise greats inside Raymond James Stadium. He’s been the person to kick off every of the Bucs’ earlier Ring of Honor induction ceremonies, however in the future, he ought to get his personal.