Top 5 Free Agent Signings in Bucs History: Beyond Brady

There's a lot more to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' free agent history than Tom Brady. As a matter of fact, Rob Gronkowski, the quarterback's favorite acquisition that the Buccaneers made during his seasons behind center, did not arrive in Tampa as a National Football League free agent. 

Brady remains critical to the Buccaneers' history in many ways. Brady was voted Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl LV in his very first season with the Bucs, sparking a string of five consecutive playoff appearances for the Buccaneers. Brady's team change sent shock waves through the NFL, and his signing alone gave the Bucs the biggest splash in free agency history. 

However, Brady certainly wasn't the first great player to don Bucs colors, and his Super Bowl win wasn't the first for the franchise, either. Let's look at four other free agents who made a significant impact during their time in Tampa Bay.

Simeon Rice was the missing piece of the puzzle for Tampa Bay's dominant defensive line of the early 2000s. Warren Sapp's formidable presence on the interior made Rice's speed and ferocity off the edge even more of a weapon. Rice led the Buccaneers with 15.5 sacks in the Super Bowl championship season of 2002, following that fearsome performance with another 15 the next year. Rice was voted a first-team NFL All-Pro in 2002 and made the NFC Pro Bowl team after both campaigns. 

Rice's best game as a Buccaneer came on Oct. 12, 2003, when the Chicago native tied a Bucs franchise record with four sacks. He shares that record with Shaquil Barrett and Marcus Jones.

Brad Johnson wasn't the biggest name in the NFL free agent market, but he was the quarterback Tampa Bay needed to win the Buccaneers' first Super Bowl title. Johnson passed for 10,940 yards and 64 touchdowns in four seasons with the Buccaneers. He finished third in the NFL in passer rating with a 92.9 in 2002, before leading the Bucs to a 48-21 win in Super Bowl XXXVII, complementing their dominating defense with two touchdown passes.

The seasoned quarterback made his most savvy veteran move prior to that Super Bowl, when he bribed a ball boy to alter all the game's footballs in pregame, preferring a scratchier surface than the slick-to-the-touch footballs provided by the league for Super Bowl XXXVII. Oakland's fans manufactured a brief "DeflateGate"-style controversy, but opposing QB Rich Gannon confessed to preferring the doctored footballs as well.

Shaquil "Shaq" Barrett holds the Tampa Bay Buccaneers record for most sacks in a season with 19.5, accomplishing the feat in 2019. Barrett played like a lion let out of a cage when he arrived from the Denver Broncos that year, compiling more starts and sacks, than the sum total of his stats from four years in the Mile High City. 

Barrett's greatest triumph with the Bucs, however, was netting nine sacks in the team's seminal postseason run in the 2020 season. Barrett's only tackle of Tampa Bay's 31-9 victory in Super Bowl LV was a sack of Kansas City's famed quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

Hardy Nickerson's legacy with Tampa Bay shines as a player, a leader, and a businessman. Nickerson was one of the first unrestricted free agents ever signed to a new team after the NFL Players Association won the right for players to assume free agency in 1993. The 6-foot-2 California native's free-agent deal with the Bucs stood out from a sea of quarterbacks who changed teams in 1993, alongside legendary pass-rusher Reggie White. Nickerson set a new NFL record with 214 combined tackles in his first season of a seven-year stint in Tampa.

Nickerson was former head coach Tony Dungy's linchpin for a culture change in Tampa Bay. The interior linebacker made five Pro Bowls while captaining the Buccaneers' corps of tacklers that helped revitalize the franchise with playoff appearances in the late 1990s. While Nickerson had left the Bucs by the time they won the Super Bowl in 2002, dedicated fans credit him for helping their new generation of defensive stars.

Tom Terrific's short three-year stint with Tampa Bay contrasts a No. 1 ranking in a list of Bucs free agents. Brady, for his well-earned accolades as the greatest quarterback of modern times, didn't win more Super Bowls with the Buccaneers than quarterback Brad Johnson. Johnson, like Brady, got the Buccaneers past the NFC Divisional Round exactly once. The famed former Patriots franchise quarterback sits second in Bucs franchise history with 108 touchdown passes for Tampa Bay, leading the NFL with 43 2021. But his free-agent signing went even beyond the gridiron. 

Brady leaving the Patriots to join the Buccaneers created the NFL's biggest media stir since "Tebowmania." Pats' faithful weren't sure whether to cheer, laugh, or cry as Brady outfoxed Mahomes in the Bucs' lopsided Super Bowl win of February 2021. Gronkowski emerging from retirement to play with Brady on the Bucs was another huge headline that the icon's presence alone created. Most of all, Brady made history by becoming the oldest player to win the Super Bowl at age 43. The "George Foreman" of football retired at age 45 after two more playoff years in Tampa.