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Pro Football Focus has just turned 20 years old! The company, founded by Chris Collinsworth and Neil Hornsby, has become the standard for advanced football analytics.
PFF analyzes, charts, and grades every single NFL player on every single play and then uses that data to rank each player's performance vs every other player at his position.
It also does the same for (formerly) Division I college football.
Since PFF has to wait another year before it can celebrate its birthday by going to a bar, it did the next best thing: PFF created a team of its top-graded NFL players at each position during its 20 years of existence.
Several former Tampa Bay Buccaneers made the cut.
Let's see which ones.
Tom Brady No surprise here.
Brady is (almost) universally thought to be the best quarterback ever.
PFF would agree.
Well, at least they agree that he is the best QB of the last 20 years.
While Brady will mostly be remembered for his 20 seasons and six Super Bowl victories with the New England Patriots , he also carved out a piece of Bucs' history for himself.
Brady ended his career with three terrific seasons in Tampa, including leading the Bucs to a dominant Super Bowl LV victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.
The following season, at age 44, Brady defied time by leading the NFL with 5,316 passing yards (a career high) and 43 passing touchdowns, finishing second in the NFL MVP voting.
He would end his Hall of Fame career after the 2022 season, his third and final with the Bucs.
Rob Gronkowski Coming out of retirement to join his former QB Brady in Tampa, "Gronk" played his final two seasons with the Bucs and was a key member of the Super Bowl championship team.
In his two years for the Bucs, Gronk caught an even 100 passes for 1,425 yards and 13 TDs across his 28 regular-season games.
Gronkowski and Tony Gonzalez were PFF's Second-Team tight ends, behind Travis Kelce and George Kittle, who made the First-Team.
Antonio Brown And Julio Jones Both of PFF's First-Team wide receivers, Antonio Brown and Julio Jones (with DeAndre Hopkins in the slot), also spent time with the Bucs before ending their respective careers, one with slightly more dignity than the other.
Jones came to the Bucs in 2022 to play alongside Brady and recorded 24 receptions for 299 yards and two TDs in 10 games.
Though he was nowhere near the player he was in his prime, and his time in Tampa was largely forgettable, Jones is one of the best WRs ever to play, and Bucs fans can brag that he was on their team at one point.
Brown's time in Tampa was exponentially more memorable, although not for the right reasons.
Although Brown did help the Bucs win Super Bowl LV, his time in Tampa will largely be remembered for how it ended.
Brown dramatically quit on the Bucs in the middle of a game, removing part of his uniform and jogging off the field, waving at the roaring (and mostly laughing and pointing) crowd.
Brown was released by the Bucs immediately and would never play another snap in the NFL.
One of the greatest "what if" stories in recent memory, Brown was one of the most talented and hardest-working WRs ever to play.
He did give Bucs' fans (and Jets' fans) an image they will never forget.
Lavonte David The only member of PFF's 20th anniversary team to play his entire career in Tampa is David, who played all 14 of his NFL seasons with the Bucs before retiring this offseason.
David is a future Hall of Famer, and one of the best players in Tampa history.
He and Patrick Willis were named to PFF's Second-Team of linebackers, with Bobby Wagner and Luke Kuechly selected for the First-Team.
Final Thoughts The Bucs are well represented on PFF's 20th anniversary team.
Four of the five players who made it helped deliver a championship to Tampa, and the other is one of the greatest WRs ever.
Other great Bucs, like Derrick Brooks and Warren Sapp, didn't play enough of their terrific careers during PFF's existence and were left off the team.
There have been many outstanding players in the Bucs' history, and the five listed above were the best of the best over the past 20 years.
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