6-Time Pro Bowl Defensive Tackle Gerald McCoy Retires

A Tampa Bay Buccaneers icon is hanging it up. Six-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Gerald McCoy took to Twitter earlier today to announce his retirement. He leaves the game with 59.5 sacks, 334 total tackles, and 86 tackles for loss.

THANK YOU!!! pic.twitter.com/NxE9K4TfJK
— Gerald McCoy (@Geraldini93) April 14, 2023

McCoy entered the league as the Bucs' third-overall pick of the 2010 NFL Draft. He was one of the lone bright spots in a dismal period for the franchise; he earned six consecutive Pro Bowls with the team from 2012 to 2017 but played during a postseason drought that lasted from 2008 to 2019.

McCoy left the Bucs following the 2018 season and had a productive season with the Carolina Panthers in 2019, notching 5.0 sacks and 37 total tackles. Bad luck caught up with him from then on. He missed the entire 2020 season after rupturing his quadriceps in practice with the Dallas Cowboys, and he played a mere nine snaps with the Las Vegas Raiders before suffering a knee injury that cost him the remainder of the 2021 season. He hasn't played since.

A beloved, boisterous personality in Tampa with a famed penchant for Batman (as that retirement video can attest), McCoy leaves the game with a legacy that will likely be honored by the Bucs for years to come. He may fall short of enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame due to the ineffectiveness of the teams he played on, but he should have a place in the Bucs' Ring of Honor; only franchise legends Derrick Brooks and Warren Sapp earned more Pro Bowls with the team.