Tampa Bay Buccaneers Top 5 Quarterbacks of All Time

(last updated on January 31, 2026)

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers entered the NFL in 1976 with a rather inauspicious 0-14 inaugural season. Then in only their fourth season, they advanced to the NFC Championship Game. But starting in 1983 they had a 14-season playoff drought. The late 90s and early 2000s were much better times for the Bucs. Later in team history they endured another long postseason-less run before an all-time great came to save the day. Yes, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers do have a reputation for losing, but they do have two Super Bowl titles. Only about half the NFL franchises can make that claim. If a team has gone to the playoffs 15 times in their history, then they needed some decent quarterbacks to get them there. As Chris Berman would say, “Let’s head down to the Big Sombrero.” Here are the top quarterbacks of all time for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 

Trent Dilfer is never going to be mistaken for Joe Montana, but he does have more Super Bowl titles than Dan Marino, Dan Fouts, and Philip Rivers combined. Although it wasn’t a spectacular tenure, Trent Dilfer did enough to qualify as one of the best quarterbacks in Tampa Bay Buccaneers history. Out of Fresno State, Dilfer was the sixth pick of the 1994 NFL Draft, and he had a rough first few seasons by the bay. However, as the Bucs gradually improved, so did Trent. He threw for 2,500+ passing yards each year from ‘95 to ‘98. Dilfer’s breakthrough year was 1997 when he led the Bucs to a 10-6 record as they busted an interminable playoff drought. He was a Pro Bowler with 21 TDs to 11 INTs and 2,555 yards passing. The Bucs vanquished the Detroit Lions in the Wild Card round 20-10 with the help of Trent’s 181 passing yards and a TD strike. In 1999, the Bucs were 7-3 when Dilfer got hurt for the season, but they still got all the way to the NFC Championship Game. Of course, the aforementioned Super Bowl title for this QB came in 2000 when he was a Baltimore Raven. TD’s overall record as the Bucs starter was a respectable 38-38, and his 12,969 passing yards are good for fifth in franchise rankings. Trent Dilfer helped this team turn the page on dreadful football, so he gets a place with the top Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterbacks of all time.

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When you think of Doug Williams, your first thought is the first African-American quarterback to win a Super Bowl, but you should also know that before his I’m-going-to-Disney-World moment, he was one of the best quarterbacks ever for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Prior to drafting Doug Williams in the 1978 NFL Draft, the Bucs had an all-time record of 2-26. In his five years in Tampa, this Grambling State Tiger got the Bucs to the playoffs three times. That qualifies him as an impact player. In 1979, the Buccaneers went 10-6 and were powered by Williams’s almost 2,500 yards in the air and 18 TD passes. They beat the Eagles in the NFC Divisional Round before losing to the Rams a game shy of the Super Bowl. Doug’s best regular seasons were ‘80 and ‘81 when he threw for at least 3,300 yards and 19 touchdowns both years. And … he got Tampa Bay back to the playoffs in ‘81 and ‘82. Then a few years later he had that history-changing MVP performance in Super Bowl XXIII for Washington. Doug Williams’s 73 TD passes sit sixth in franchise history, and when you combine that with him getting a once futile team to the brink of the Super Bowl, that makes Doug Williams an all-time quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

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Only two guys have quarterbacked the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a Super Bowl championship, and this man is one of them: Brad Johnson. Winning the franchise’s first Super Bowl title definitely gets Brad Johnson a place with the best Tampa Bay Bucs quarterbacks of all time. In 2001, Johnson joined a Tampa team that was a popular Super Bowl pick even though they were coming off of a disappointing Wild Card loss the previous season. That year this former FSU Seminole put up 3,406 passing yards, 13 passing touchdowns, and a 60.8 completion percentage, but the Bucs once again fell short in the Wild Card round, which ended up costing Tony Dungy his job. However, in 2002 Johnson and the Buccaneers had a season to remember. #14 had another solid statistical season for a 12-4 squad: 3,049 yards, 22 TDs to only 6 picks, a 62.3 completion %, and a career-best 92.9 passer rating. For a third straight postseason, the warm-weather Bucs went to frosty Veterans Stadium for a battle with the Philadelphia Eagles; I actually worked in the press box for these games. Anyway, in the last game at the Vet, Johnson led Tampa Bay to a 27-10 NFC Championship Game victory with 259 yards through the air and a touchdown. Two weeks later, the Bucs bashed the Oakland Raiders 48-21 in Super Bowl XXXVII aided by Brad’s 215 yards passing and 2 touchdowns. In 2003, this QB actually posted career highs of 3,811 yards and 26 TDs in a disappointing 7-9 season. In his three full seasons as the main man by the bay, Brad Johnson produced three consecutive 3,000+ yards seasons, 61 total passing TDs, and a Lombardi Trophy, so he earned a place with the best quarterbacks in Tampa Bay Buccaneers history.

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I can almost feel the groan when NFL fans hear the name Jameis Winston. Like him or not, he is the Bucs all-time leader in both passing yards (19,737) and passing touchdowns (121), so that makes him one of the top Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterbacks of all time. Yes, a great QB is ultimately judged by wins and losses, but the numbers don’t lie. Winston, the top pick of the 2015 NFL Draft, threw for at least 3,500 yards in four of his five seasons in Tampa Bay. In 2019, he led the NFL in that category with a monstrous 5,109 yards. His yearly passing TD totals weren’t bad either: 22, 28, 19, 19, and 33. Of course, the Bucs only had one winning season and zero playoff appearances in his tenure, so that tends not to reflect well on the draft’s number one overall guy. However, with the exception of high interception totals, his Tampa Bay stats are not bad no matter how you analyze it. Just look at his 61.3 completion % and 86.9 passer rating as a Buccaneer; those aren’t spectacular, but they are very solid numbers for a signal-caller. The Bucs moved on from him after the 2019 season, but Jameis Winston did more than enough to be called one of the best quarterbacks ever for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

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Does Tom Brady have to be on every single “best of” list? In this case, yes, he has to be considered one of the top quarterbacks of all time for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. We all know of his New England accomplishments, but what he did in only three seasons with the Bucs is pretty remarkable. In his first season down there, he won a Super Bowl. That season TB12 told Father Time not today: a 65.7 completion %, 40 TDs with only 12 INTs, and a 102.2 passer rating. In the playoffs, he led the Bucs to three road wins at Washington, New Orleans, and Green Bay. Brady threw for a combined 7 touchdowns and 860 yards in those games. At Super Bowl LV, in the Buccaneers own stadium, the GOAT won his fifth Super Bowl MVP with 3 TDs, 201 passing yards, and a 125.8 passer rating as Tampa Bay dominated Kansas City and Patrick Mahomes 31-9. In 2021, at age 44, this sixth-round pick may have had his best season: an NFL-best 485 completions, an NFL-best 5,316 yards passing, an NFL-best 43 touchdown passes, a 67.5 completion %, and a 102.1 passer rating. The Bucs won a division title but lost in the playoffs. In the final season of perhaps the greatest career ever, #12 just had a pedestrian 4,694 yards and 25 TDs with another NFC South crown. Tom Terrific, in only three seasons, gave Tampa three playoff appearances, a 32-18 regular-season record, 14,643 passing yards (third in franchise history), 108 passing touchdowns (second in franchise history), and their second Lombardi Trophy. So, TB12 haters, yes, Tom Brady is definitely one of the top Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterbacks of all time. 

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 31st, 2024 at 5:14 pm and is filed under Top Lists. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.