In the end, the numbers couldn't be ignored.
On Friday, the Associated Press named its All-Pro teams for 2023 and Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety Antoine Winfield Jr. was one of the two selections for the first team at his position. He is the first Buccaneer safety to be named to the AP's first team since Pro Football Hall of Famer John Lynch in 2000.
Winfield surprisingly was not voted into the Pro Bowl, but in the end he came out with a much more exclusive honor as one of just two safeties in the NFL to be named first-team All-Pro. It was a well-deserved accolade after he finished the regular season with a particularly rare stat line: 122 tackles, 6.0 sacks, six forced fumbles, three interceptions, 12 passes defensed and four fumble recoveries. Winfield is the first defensive back with six sacks and six forced fumbles in the same season since 2000.
Winfield Jr. is the only NFL player since data became available in 1999 to finish a season with 100 or more tackles and at least three interceptions, three forced fumbles, three fumble recoveries and 3.0 sacks. He led all NFL defensive backs in sacks, forced fumbles and fumble recoveries.
Winfield punctuated his candidacy for NFL Defensive Player of the Year in Week 18 with a critical goal-line forced fumble and a sack at Carolina in the Buccaneers' division-clinching victory. He finished the season tied for the NFL lead in both forced fumbles and fumble recoveries, one of only two players to pull off that dual accomplishment since 2000.
Winfield joins Lynch as the only safeties in Buccaneers history to earn first-team AP All-Pro honors. Lynch did so in 1999 and 2000. Winfield joins tackle Tristan Wirfs (2021) as the only Buccaneers to earn that honor in the last eight years, since running back Doug Martin was selected in 2015.
