The Five Buccaneers with the Most Rushing Yards in Franchise History
1. James Wilder, 5,957 yards, 1981-89
Wilder was not one of those five Bucs backs who launched right into his career with a 1,000-yard season as a rookie. In fact, the 1981 second-round pick primarily played fullback in his first season, though he did have 107 carries for 370 yards. Wilder actually didn’t hit the 1,000-yard mark in his career until the ninth game of his third season. However, he had 42 carries for 126 yards in that game, 31 for 219 the next week and 19 for 62 the game after that. Though he missed the rest of the season due to injury, that three-game run was a harbinger of what was to come over the next two years.
In 1984, Wilder became a true workhorse back, setting a (since-broken) NFL single-season record with 407 carries. He turned that into 1,544 yards, which remains the single-season record for the franchise, though another player on this list came within 90 yards of breaking it. Amazingly, Wilder also led the team that season with 85 catches and ended up with 2,229 yards from scrimmage. All of that added up to the first Pro Bowl invitation for a Tampa Bay running back.
The 1985 season was more of the same. Wilder carried the ball 365 times for 1,300 yards and 10 touchdowns. He remains the only Tampa Bay back ever to record consecutive 1,000-yard seasons, so there is a mark that Irving will get a chance to chase right away. However, those proved to be the only 1,000-yard campaigns of his career. He played four more seasons in Tampa, with his yardage totals dropping each season, culminating in 70 carries for 244 yards in 1989.
2. Mike Alstott, 5,088 yards, 1996-2006
Alstott is second on the Buccaneers’ career rushing list despite never rushing for 1,000 yards in a season. Of course, that’s no blemish on his resume given that he played fullback, not tailback. Alstott was so productive for that position that he made six straight Pro Bowls from 1997-2002. The only other offensive player in franchise history who has been to as many Pro Bowls as Alstott is current star receiver Mike Evans.
Alstott did get very close to that 1,000-yard mark in 1999 when he turned a career-high 242 carries into 949 yards and seven touchdowns. From 1997 through 2002, he averaged just under 700 rushing yards per season. During all but the last of those six seasons, he was sharing the backfield with his “Thunder & Lightning” teammate Warrick Dunn, which tended to put a cap on the number of carries either player got.
Alstott missed all but four games with a neck injury in 2003, and over his last four seasons he added just 558 rushing yards to his career total. After aggravating his neck injury in 2006, he spent 2007 on injured reserve and retired the summer after that, robbing him of a chance to go after Wilder’s team record.
Of course, Alstott is probably best known for his work around the goal line, where a lot of one and two-yard runs didn’t add much to his career total but definitely built an incredible highlight reel. He is the team’s career leader far and away with 71 rushing touchdowns, and his 78 total scores were also a franchise standard until Evans broke that one a few years ago. Alstott also ranks sixth in team annals with 305 receptions.
3. Warrick Dunn, 4,986 yards, 1997-2001, 2008
Dunn would have easily set the Bucs’ career rushing record if, like Alstott, he had remained in Tampa for his entire NFL career. However, he left in free agency in 2002 and played six seasons for the Atlanta Falcons before returning to the Buccaneers for one last hurrah in 2008. His career rushing yardage split is remarkably right down the middle: 4,986 yards for Tampa Bay and 5,981 for the Falcons.
Dunn is one of those two aforementioned backs who won Offensive Rookie of the Year honors, doing so in 2012 after being drafted with the 12th overall pick. He also made the first of his three Pro Bowl appearances that season after instantly emerging as a dual threat, with 978 yards on 224 carries and another 462 yards on 39 receptions.
Dunn had just two 1,000-yard campaigns in Tampa, with 1,026 in 1998 and 1,133 in 2000 (his second Pro Bowl year), but he topped 1,000 yards from scrimmage in all but one of his 12 NFL seasons. The only exception was his final year in Atlanta, 2007, when he narrowly missed the mark with 958. In his swan song campaign back in Buccaneer colors, Dunn ran for 786 yards and added another 330 on 47 catches.
Dunn is also fifth on the Bucs’ all-time reception list with 306, just one more than his Thunder & Lightning partner. In six playoff games for Tampa Bay, he added another 529 rushing yards and 26 receptions for 168 yards.
4. Doug Martin, 4,633 yards, 2012-17
Martin is the back who came closest to catching Wilder’s single-season record, and he did it right away, rushing 319 times for 1,454 yards and 11 touchdowns as a rookie in 2012. The Buccaneers had traded back into the first round that spring to nab the Boise State product at number 31 overall, and that decision paid off right away with the first of Martin’s two Pro Bowl campaigns.
Unfortunately for the runner known as “The Muscle Hamster” – a nickname, frankly, that Martin didn’t care for – injuries cut deeply into his production over the next two seasons. He missed 10 games and finished with 456 yards in 2013, then was signed for another five the next season and topped out at 494 yards.
However, Martin proved that his rookie campaign was no fluke with a huge bounceback campaign in 2015, one that had him finish fourth in the Comeback Player of the Year voting. He ran 288 times for 1,402 yards and six touchdowns, averaging a career-best 4.9 yards per carry. By surpassing the 1,400-yard mark, he became the first and still only back in franchise history to do so in two different seasons. He was also recognized as a first-team Associated Press All-Pro for his efforts, joining Alstott as the only two Buccaneer backs ever to earn that honor.
The injury problems came back for Martin the next two seasons, unfortunately, and he finished with a combined 827 rushing yards in 2016 and 2017. He finished his career with one season playing for his hometown Oakland Raiders.
5. Cadillac Williams, 3,677 yards, 2005-10
Like Dunn, Williams earned Offensive Rookie of the Year honors after being drafted in the first round. Williams went even higher than Dunn, coming off the board at pick number five, although that incredibly made him just the third running back selected.
The start to Williams’ career was so good that it earned him representation in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He set an NFL record with 434 rushing yards in his first three career game, after which Canton came calling for his cleats to put on display. He ran into some injury problems that cost him two games but finished strong and put up 1,178 rushing yards and six touchdowns.
Unfortunately, poor injury luck became the main story of Williams’ career and he never hit 1,000 yards again. Buccaneer teammates loved him for his competitiveness and team-first mentality, but he was limited to 10 total games in 2007 and 2008 and took a back seat to first Earnest Graham and then Dunn.
In 2009, Williams rebounded to play in all 16 games and finished with 823 rushing yards, the second-highest total of his career. That got him the second-most votes for the Comeback Player of the Year award. In 2010, he also played in all 16 games and made nine starts but he split time with rookie LeGarrett Blount, who would top the 1,000-yard rushing mark. That final season in Tampa netted Williams another 437 rushing yards. Williams played one more season for the St. Louis Rams in 2011 and had 361 more yards.