The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) South division. They joined the NFL in 1976 as an expansion team, along with the Seattle Seahawks, and played its first season in the American Football Conference (AFC) West division.
Jon David Gruden is an American professional football coach who is an advisor for the Milano Seamen of the European League of Football. He held his first head coaching position with the Raiders franchise during their Oakland tenure from 1998 to 2001, where he won two consecutive division titles and made an AFC Championship Game appearance. Gruden was traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002, which he led to their first Super Bowl title in Super Bowl XXXVII the same season. At age 39, he was the then-youngest head coach to win the Super Bowl. He served as Tampa Bay's head coach through 2008, setting the franchise record for wins, but made only two further playoff runs. After his firing from the Buccaneers, Gruden was featured as an analyst for ESPN's Monday Night Football broadcasts from the 2009 to the 2017 seasons.
John Harvey McKay was an American football coach. He was the head coach at the University of Southern California (USC) from 1960 to 1975 and of the National Football League's Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 1976 to 1984. In sixteen seasons at USC, McKay compiled a record of 127–40–8 (.749) and won nine AAWU/Pac-8 conference titles. His teams made eight appearances in the Rose Bowl, with five wins. Four of his squads captured national titles.
The 2006 Tampa Bay Buccaneers season was the franchise's 31st season in the National Football League (NFL), the 9th playing their home games at Raymond James Stadium, and the 5th under head coach Jon Gruden.
David Edward Moore is an American former professional football tight end and long snapper who played in the National Football League (NFL) with the played for the Miami Dolphins, the Buffalo Bills, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers over the span of his 15-year career. His last official game was the 2007 Pro Bowl in Honolulu, Hawaii. Moore didn't miss more than two games in any season for his entire Buccaneers career since first joining the team in 1993. At the time of his retirement, he was the fourth tight end in NFL history to play 200 career games. In fact, before him, only 206 NFL players had accomplished this feat in the entirety of the National Football League's existence. During his career he had a rate of one touchdown scored for every 7.7 passes caught, which was the best touchdown rate by any player in Buccaneers history who had at least 50 career receptions.
Bruce Charles Arians is an American football executive and former coach in the National Football League (NFL). Since 2022, he has been a senior football consultant for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Arians was previously the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals from 2013 to 2017 and the Buccaneers from 2019 to 2021. He was also the interim head coach of the Indianapolis Colts during the 2012 season. Arians is known for his slogan "No risk-it, no biscuit," which encourages aggressive playcalling.
This article details the history of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers American football franchise.
Todd Robert Bowles is an American professional football coach and former player who is the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL). He previously was the head coach of the New York Jets from 2015 to 2018. Bowles has also been the defensive coordinator of the Arizona Cardinals and Buccaneers and the secondary coach for the Jets, Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys, Miami Dolphins, and Philadelphia Eagles. He played eight seasons in the NFL as a safety, primarily with the Washington Redskins, and was a member of the team that won Super Bowl XXII.
The 1979 Tampa Bay Buccaneers season was the franchise's 4th season in the National Football League. All home games were played at Tampa Stadium. After having won just seven games in the previous three seasons combined, the 1979 Buccaneers won ten games for their first winning season. They finished as NFC Central division champions and won the first playoff game in franchise history.
The 1984 Tampa Bay Buccaneers season was the franchise's 9th season in the National Football League the 9th playing their home games at Tampa Stadium and the 9th and final season under head coach John McKay. They improved on their 2–14 season and finished 6-10, but missing the playoffs for the second straight season.
The 1995 Tampa Bay Buccaneers season was the franchise's 20th season in the National Football League (NFL).
The 1986 Tampa Bay Buccaneers season was the franchise's 11th season in the National Football League playing their home games at Tampa Stadium and their second under head coach Leeman Bennett. The team matched their 2–14 season from 1985, for one of the worst seasons in franchise history, and according to statistics site Football Outsiders, the sixth-worst team in the NFL since 1950. There is some sentiment that the 1986 team was even worse than the winless team of 1976, and the 473 points conceded was not beaten by any NFL team until the 2001 Indianapolis Colts gave up 486. The Buccaneers selected Bo Jackson with the top pick in the draft, but were unable to convince him to join the team. Three weeks after the draft, Jackson signed a three-year baseball contract with the Kansas City Royals. Despite holding four of the first forty selections in the draft, and the presence of a great influx of fresh talent from defunct USFL teams, the Buccaneers were unable to find any impact players in either the draft or free agency. They entered the season with a roster nearly identical to the previous season's 2–14 team.
The 1987 Tampa Bay Buccaneers season was the franchise's 12th season in the National Football League, the 12th playing their home games at Tampa Stadium, and the first under head coach Ray Perkins. It was a year of great change for the Buccaneers. Perkins had only needed three seasons (1979–1981) to build the New York Giants into a playoff team, and it was hoped that he would be able to repeat the feat with the Buccaneers. They improved over their 2–14 record from 1986 and finished 4–11.
The 1988 Tampa Bay Buccaneers season was the franchise's 13th season in the National Football League the 13th playing their home games at Tampa Stadium and the 2nd under head coach Ray Perkins. Perkins had by now rebuilt the Buccaneers as the NFL's youngest team, having replaced so many veterans that leadership became an issue. A strong draft produced several starters, including standout offensive tackle Paul Gruber. The team was largely competitive and showed an ability to outplay opponents in the second half of games, but continued their tendency toward mental errors, and finished with a disappointing 5–11 record. Second-year quarterback Vinny Testaverde was inconsistent: an effective leader at times, as in their late-season upset of the AFC-leading Buffalo Bills, mistake-prone at others. His 35 interceptions are still a team record. His frequent costly errors caused the coaching staff to lose confidence in him, and at one point to replace him with backup Joe Ferguson. The team finished the season on a strong note with wins in two of their final three games, including respectable performances against two playoff contenders.
The 1989 Tampa Bay Buccaneers season was the franchise's 14th season in the National Football League the 14th playing their home games at Tampa Stadium and the third under head coach Ray Perkins. The team matched on a 5–11 season in 1988, in which finished winning two of their last three games including an upset of the 1988 AFC East Champion Buffalo Bills (a win that was not only Tampa Bay's high point of the season, but turned out to be hugely impactful on the AFC playoff picture, as Buffalo's loss combined with an overtime win by the Cincinnati Bengals over Washington in the season finale meant that the Bengals clinched the home-field advantage that would have otherwise gone to the Bills; Cincinnati ended up winning a close AFC title game at home against Buffalo and got to Super Bowl XXIII. The season started with a road win against the improved Green Bay Packers, and game two brought the Super Bowl champion San Francisco 49ers and Joe Montana to Tampa Stadium. With Joe trying to direct a 4th quarter comeback, cornerback Ricky Reynolds dropped what would have been a game ending interception on second down in the end zone. On third down, Montana rolled out and ran untouched into the endzone for a winning TD that left a rare sellout crowd stunned and silent in defeat. The Bucs extended their record to 3–2 by beating the hated Chicago Bears finally in Tampa Stadium, holding off the Bears to a 42–35 victory. It was an impressive win, but then the Bucs lost to the Detroit Lions in the last minute and entered into an overall five-game losing-streak tailspin. Tampa Bay would sweep Chicago to end the streak but ended with a disappointing 5–11 record. James Wilder Sr.’s final season was highlighted by a 100-yard receiving game in week 9. Many fans felt the Bucs were far better than the final record suggested, and offseason acquisitions would help the Bucs win the next year.
The 1991 Tampa Bay Buccaneers season was the franchise's 16th season in the National Football League.
The Buccaneers–Dolphins rivalry is between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL). It is an in-state, interconference matchup between the two oldest NFL teams in the state of Florida. It has been active in most years since the Buccaneers joined the league as an expansion team in 1976. The rivalry is mostly a mainstay of the preseason, as the teams have been in different conferences since 1977, with the Dolphins are part of the AFC East while the Buccaneers are currently part of the NFC South. According to the current NFL scheduling format, the two teams play each other once every four years during the regular season and once every eight seasons at each team's home stadium. However, with a new 17-game schedule being introduced in 2021, it is now possible for the two teams to meet as early as every other year, depending on division placement and from the inter-conference match-ups made two years earlier. In addition, the two clubs play each other during the preseason nearly every year, with the site rotating on a mostly regular basis. The two teams have never met in the playoffs. Currently, the only circumstance in which the two teams could meet during the postseason would be in the Super Bowl.
Michael Lynn Evans III is an American professional football wide receiver for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL). Evans played college football for the Texas A&M Aggies, earning consensus All-American honors after recording a school record of 1,394 receiving yards on 69 receptions in 2013. He was selected by the Buccaneers in the first round with the seventh overall pick in the 2014 NFL draft.
The Buccaneers–Saints rivalry is a National Football League (NFL) rivalry between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New Orleans Saints.
