The No.24 shirt
For the first five years of the franchise, the No.24 shirt had
been worn only briefly by the soon-to-be-forgotten Roscoe Word in
the final month of December 1976. And from then on, the roll of
honour for this number is not exactly one of the greatest in Buc
history. for Word was one of those late-1976 signings that were necessitated by
how bad the expansion Bucs were, rather than any need for replacement talent.
After a bunch of real no-names and special teams' fodder, the only real
competition to the Cadillac being the best back was Sylvester "Zip-code" Stamps
who had one season in Tampa in 1989.
But to look for competition for a best-ever from this list, well we have to go to Tony Dungy's NFC
Championship team and its free safety Damien Robinson. He only started the final two years of his Tampa
career and then moved on in free agency to play with former Buc assistant coach Herman Edwards with the
New York Jets.
Dan Land had one of the longest careers of any Buc replacement player, and Paul Tripoli was one of the few
replacements kept on the final roster after the 1987 strike ended, and indeed started the regular season
finale that year. Mike Prior and Jerry Wilson did not do a lot in the No.24 uniform for the Bucs, but both went
on to decade-long NFL careers with other teams.
So it almost by default that Carnell Williams takes the honour and although injuries may have robbed him of
the chance to be a real star in the NFL, he certainly had a lot of good games and moments for the
Buccaneers. He even went on to take over as head coach at Auburn during the 2022 season.
Anthony Gaitor had the number as a rookie in 2011 but handed it over to 2012 top draft pick Mark Barron
who had his own chance to establish himself in the jersey for the Bucs before having it over to Darrelle Revis
after his rookie season. The Revis experiment of course only lasted one year although Brent Grimes' arrival
in 2016 and a Pro Bowl alternate selection brought pride back to the cornerbacks to have worn this number.
Carlton Davis switched to the 24 jersey for the 2020 season and has been one of the best corners in recent
years since being draftted.
BEST EVER TO WEAR No.24 FOR THE BUCCANEERS - CADILLAC WILLIAMS
Click on the player's name for their profile
page, Buccaneer stats and picture galleries
Years
Player
Pos
1976
Roscoe Word
CB
1981
Jeff Delaney
S
1982-83
Thomas Morris
CB
1984
Maurice Harvey
CB
1985
Mike Prior
S
1987
Dan Land
RB
1987
Paul Tripoli
S
1989
Sylvester Stamps
KR
1991-93
Roger Jones
CB
1997-00
Damien Robinson
S
2003-04
Torrie Cox
CB
2005-10
Cadillac Williams
RB
2011
Anthony Gaitor
CB
2012
Mark Barron
S
2013
Darrelle Revis
CB
2014-15
Mike Jenkins
CB
2016-18
Brent Grimes
CB
2019
Darian Stewart
S
2020-
Carlton Davis
CB