The No.44 shirt Of all the jersey numbers we feature in this series, 44 is going to be the hardest to award a "best-ever" tag to. I mean, how many of these players have you ever heard of? The first to wear 44 for the Bucs, Manfred Moore e-mailed me from California where he was a successful businessman, to compliment the site for featuring him some 30 years after he appeared for the Buccaneers. After a series of special teamers, Ivory Sully started at safety during the Leeman Bennett years (though that is nothing to honestly be proud of). Carl Carter was a nickel back at best as was Darren Anderson. Billy Baber was a final game signing in 2004 and had but one reception in his Buc career, although Rick Razzano probably holds the record for most transactions during a career for the sake of one actual game in Buc colours. Byron Storer was a special teams' player whose career was cut short by injury and went on to become an assistant coach with the Buccaneers. Erik Lorig began his rookie season as a defensive end wearing 97 but converted to a full back and hence took this number during the 2010 season. And then along came former Colts veteran TE Dallas Clark in 2012 who posted enough numbers at the tail-end of his NFL career to steal the best 44 jersey from Manfred although Dare Ogunbowale had some nice moments as the third down back. BEST EVER TO WEAR No.44 FOR THE BUCCANEERS - DALLAS CLARK
Click on the player's name for their profile page, Buccaneer stats and picture galleries Years Player Pos 1976 Manfred Moore RB 1978-79, 81 Billy Cesare CB 1982 Terdell Middleton RB 1982-83 Dwayne O'Steen CB 1985-86 Ivory Sully S 1991 Carl Carter CB 1992-93 Darren Anderson CB 1995 John Booty S 2003 Vinny Ciurciu FB 2004 Billy Baber TE 2005 Rick Razzano FB 2007-09 Byron Storer FB 2010-11 Erik Lorig FB 2012 Dallas Clark TE 2013 Michael Hill RB 2016 Russell Hansbrough RB 2018-19 Dare Ogunbowale RB 2020- Kenyon Barber RB 2021 Elijah Ponder LB 2022 Ifeadi Odenigbo LB 2023- Sean Tucker RB