After an initial appearance by a running back in the form of George Ragsdale, the No.23 shirt has been the property of Buccaneer defensive backs ever since. Indeed, Ragsdale was actually moved to defensive back in training camp in 1980 but did not make the roster and was cut. During the Leeman Bennett years, Jeremiah Castille was the Bucs' best cornerback, but with the best will in the world, this was not honestly saying a lot. Don Anderson saw some time in 1987 and his strike replacement was Tim King, a former Tampa Bay Bandit. The next three owners of No.23 were pretty good players, including four- year starter Marty Carter who went on to start for the Bears and Falcons and Tony Bouie who was one of Tony Dungy's top special-team standouts For five seasons, Jermaine Phillips took over at one of the two safety positions for the Buccaneers and will go down as the man who replaced John Lynch. Injuries eventually caught up with Phillips but not before he became the best No.23 in franchise history. Myron Lewis certainly had no memorable moments in the number nor did Mark Barron who switched to 23 before the 2013 season to allow Darrelle Revis to wear his favourite jersey. Chris Conte took over the number on his arrival as a free agent in 2015 and had four solid seasons playing safety before being released at the end of the 2018 season. Sean Murphy-Bunting switched to 23 for the 2020 season and was a decent member of the Buccaneer secondary before moving on in free agency and Ryan Neal took over the number for the 2023 season. BEST EVER TO WEAR No.23 FOR THE BUCS - JERMAINE PHILLIPS

Click on the player's name for their profile page, Buccaneer stats and picture galleries Years Player Pos 1977-79 George Ragsdale RB 1983-86 Jeremiah Castille CB 1987 Don Anderson CB 1987 Tim King S 1991-94 Marty Carter S 1995-98 Tony Bouie S 2002-09 Jermaine Phillips S 2010-12 Myron Lewis CB 2013-14 Mark Barron S 2015-18 Chris Conte S 2019 Deone Bucannon S 2020-22 Sean Murphy-Bunting CB 2023- Ryan Neal S