The Buccaneers made their long-awaited return to the playoffs in their first year with Tom Brady in charge of the attack. Hiring Brady, who won six Super Bowl rings and went to nine league games over 20 seasons with the New England Patriots, was just one of the many bold moves the Buccaneers made in 2020 to pursue their title dreams. The Buccaneers also managed to retain several key defensive players, including Shaquil Barrett, Jason Pierre-Paul and Ndamukong Suh, and switched to Brady’s longtime Patriots teammate, tight end Rob Gronkowski.
Tampa Bay is heading into the postseason in its second season under coach Bruce Arians. In his eight seasons as coach or interim coach, Arians has led his team to the playoffs four times and has led him to ten or more wins five times.
This is the 11th time that Buccaneers have qualified for the postseason. The franchise reached the playoffs for the first time in 1979, with only four years of existence, and returned in 1981 and 1982. After a drought that lasted most of the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, the franchise saw a resurgence afterwards that was bought by Malcolm Glazer. Buccaneer returned to the playoffs in 1997, then for four consecutive years from 1999-2002. The last of those four years culminated in the Bucs’ first visit and victory in the Super Bowl, defeating the Oakland Raiders 48-21 in the title game.
Four of those appearances in the playoffs came due to the division’s titles in 1979, 1981, 1999 and 2002. The Buccaneers subsequently made the playoffs in 2005 and 2007, both times as NFC southern champions.