4 Best Bucs Ring Of Honor Candidates For 2024

The Glazer Family has no shortage of options to choose from right now, as there are some prime candidates who are plenty deserving of the honor. And it’s not as if returning to one per year is going to mean running out of worthy options in the near future, either.

Linebacker Lavonte David and wide receiver Mike Evans are Bucs Ring of Honor locks from the current roster, plus there are a few guys who are on the right track toward receiving that honor whenever they finish their careers (namely Tristan Wirfs and potentially Chris Godwin and Antoine Winfield Jr.).

At this point, general manager Jason Licht has a case himself.

So, the Bucs should get back to honoring their history this season with a new inductee – the first since former head coach and Super Bowl LV winner Bruce Arians at the end of the 2022 season.

Defensive end Lee Roy Selmon, head coach John McKay, tight end Jimmie Giles, left tackle Paul Gruber, defensive tackle Warren Sapp, linebacker Derrick Brooks, fullback Mike Alstott, quarterback Doug Williams, strong safety John Lynch, owner Malcolm Glazer, head coach Tony Dungy, cornerback Ronde Barber, defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin and Arians have their names enshrined inside Raymond James Stadium. Here are four sure-fire candidates who should join them.

Simeon Rice Is Long Overdue For The Bucs Ring Of Honor

The 2002 Bucs boasted one of the best defenses in NFL history, as the unit included four Pro Football Hall of Famers in Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks, John Lynch and Ronde Barber. All four have also been inducted into the Bucs Ring of Honor. There’s another major standout from that Tampa Bay defense whose Hall of Fame case has been debated, but there should be zero debate whatsoever about his Ring of Honor candidacy. That, of course, is defensive end Simeon Rice.

Rice, one of the most prolific pass rushers in franchise history, first joined the Bucs via free agency in 2001. He had previously racked up 51.5 sacks in five years with the Cardinals, and it wouldn’t be long before he started building his legacy in Tampa Bay. During his first year with the Bucs, Rice totaled 11 sacks, 16 tackles for loss, eight passes defensed and two forced fumbles. He then had a two-sack game in the playoffs. But it was the year after, during the franchise’s first-ever Super Bowl season, when he got even better.

During that 2002 campaign, Rice posted 15.5 sacks, 12 tackles for loss, 11 passes defensed and an interception on his way to earning Pro Bowl and first-team All-Pro honors. He went on to tally four sacks during the Bucs’ run to Super Bowl XXXVII, with two of those coming in the 48-21 Super Bowl victory over the Raiders.

Rice made another Pro Bowl in 2003 with a season that included 15 more sacks, as well as two interceptions, eight passes defensed, a fumble recovery, and six forced fumbles. While he would miss the Pro Bowl in his next two seasons, he still notched double-digit sacks in both 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 history – as well as 67 tackles for loss, 19 forced fumbles and four interceptions in 87 regular season games (all starts). He also finished with seven sacks and four forced fumbles in five playoff games with Tampa Bay. With two Pro Bowls, an All-Pro and a Super Bowl with the Bucs, Rice deserves to have his place cemented in franchise history with a Ring of Honor induction ceremony.

Hardy Nickerson Shouldn’t Go Underappreciated For Much Longer

When you name the best free agent signings in Bucs history, Hardy Nickerson should always be near the top of the list. After six seasons with the Steelers, Nickerson signed with Tampa Bay in 1993 and would go on to be one of the biggest culture-changers in franchise history. He laid the groundwork for the shift that the franchise went through later in the 1990s, and while doing that, he also played some damn good football.

He was a Pro Bowler and First Team All-Pro in 1993, a season that saw him rack up a single-season franchise record 214 tackles – a record that still stands 30 years later. He added a forced fumble, fumble recovery, interception and a sack as he finished sixth in Defensive Player of the Year voting.

Nickerson surpassed the 120-tackle mark in five of his seven seasons in Tampa Bay and followed up his Pro Bowl season in 1993 by making the Pro Bowl in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999. He added another All-Pro honor in 1997 as the Bucs made the playoffs for the first time since 1982, then he had his final Pro Bowl season in 1999 when Tampa Bay reached the NFC Championship Game. It’s a shame he wasn’t around when the Bucs finally broke through and won Super Bowl XXXVII, but his impact could still be felt even as he wrapped up his career with two seasons in Jacksonville and one campaign in Green Bay.

The late great Mark Cook once wrote in a June 2021 edition of The Hook that as much as Nickerson did on the field with the Bucs and as many accolades as he amassed – five Pro Bowls and two first-team All-Pros in those seven seasons – his biggest contribution may have been the winning mentality that he brought to the middling Bucs from his time in Pittsburgh. Cook said it best back then:

“And Nickerson doesn’t get nearly the credit he deserves for the turnaround the franchise had in the late 90’s. While we all point to Tony Dungy, Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks as the catalysts for the change in fortunes in Tampa Bay, make no mistake, it started with Nickerson, who helped guide the way to respectability.”

It’s time that Nickerson is recognized both for that contribution and the outstanding player he was for Tampa Bay.

Tom Brady’s Time With The Bucs Was Short, But His Impact Was Super

This is the one that a lot of Bucs fans are ready to skip right to as soon as possible. It was a short three-year tenure for Tom Brady with the Bucs, but what a three-year tenure it was. When Brady became a free agent for the first time in his career, he chose to leave New England and almost unbelievably signed with Tampa Bay.

Of course, he was drawn to the roster that general manager Jason Licht had built with head coach Bruce Arians, but it almost felt like something out of a Buccaneers fan’s wildest dreams. The greatest quarterback of all time coming to suit up in red and pewter?

That first season for Brady in Tampa saw him lead the Bucs through the unprecedented times of the pandemic and carry them to a late-season surge that saw them go from 7-5 to 11-5. The team made the playoffs for the first time since 2007, and what followed was a truly magical run. Brady and the Bucs won at Washington in the Wild Card round. Then, they won at New Orleans in the NFC Divisional Round before being road warriors again and emerging victorious at Green Bay in the NFC Championship Game.

That set up a home Super Bowl at Raymond James Stadium, which the Bucs won in convincing fashion over Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, 31-9. Tampa Bay became the first team to ever win the Super Bowl in its home stadium and in one year, Brady had brought the losingest franchise in the history of the four major U.S. sports to the top of the league. He finished as the Super Bowl LV MVP with three first half touchdowns.

Brady followed that up by giving them a great chance to repeat in 2021, as he led the Bucs to a 13-4 record – the best in franchise history – before a heartbreaking loss in the NFC Divisional Round. His final season in 2022 didn’t have the same heights, but it didn’t even come close to taking away just how much he came to mean to Bucs fans and the organization as a whole.

Brady is easily the best quarterback in franchise history and in just three years, he entered the Top 5 in most quarterback categories. In 50 regular season games over three years, he threw for 14,643 yards (third-most in team history), 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 national spotlight.

The Brady Era was an electric whirlwind of a dream, and the G.O.A.T. will be beloved in Tampa Bay forever. The day that he joins the Bucs Ring of Honor, you can bet that Raymond James Stadium will be packed to the top and rocking in a way that’s fitting for an NFL – and Bucs – icon.

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

The Bucs Ring of Honor consists of nine players, three head coaches, a defensive coordinator and an owner. It’s time that it also included the longtime voice of the team, and that’s Gene Deckerhoff. Deckerhoff has been the radio voice of the Bucs since 1989 and just completed his 35th season calling the team’s games. His voice is synonymous with Buccaneers football for so many fans, and he’s had some of the most iconic calls in franchise history over the years.

As Tampa Bay rose up the ranks under Tony Dungy in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Deckerhoff’s iconic voice brought fans right into the biggest moments. He then called the Bucs’ first Super Bowl victory when Jon Gruden came to town in 2002.

He proclaimed Matt Bryant as his hero when Bryant nailed a game-winning 62-yard field goal to beat the Eagles in 2006. His voice still brought excitement to fans even in the worst of years, and then he got to call the Tom Brady era, which yielded the franchise’s second Lombardi Trophy. And most recently, he called the exciting 2023 season that included a 5-1 stretch to close the regular season and a Wild Card win over Philadelphia.

Deckerhoff pulled double duty for much of his Bucs tenure, as he also served as the voice of Florida State athletics from 1979-2022. He was inducted into the Florida Sports Hall of Fame in 2022 and it was recently announced that he’ll be a part of the inaugural class of the Florida Broadcasters Hall of Fame later this year. The honors should keep stacking up for the team’s legendary voice, too.

Deckerhoff hasn’t publicly announced whether he intends to return in 2024 for a 36th season in the booth, but whether he does or not, he’s an institution for Bucs fans and deserves to be immortalized alongside the other franchise greats inside Raymond James Stadium. He’s been the man to kick off each of the Bucs’ previous Ring of Honor induction ceremonies, but one day, he should get his own.