Last Sunday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LV, 31-9. In the process quarterback Tom Brady played in his 10th Super Bowl, and won his seventh. Everyone knows that, and yet it still sounds ludicrous when I say it out loud as I'm typing this. Ten Super Bowls. Seven rings. Those numbers may never be topped.

The matchup of Brady and young Chiefs phenom Patrick Mahomes was the top storyline heading into Super Bowl LV, though it's fair to say the Buccaneers' defense stole at least a good share of the spotlight before it was all said and done. Brady himself called it the "ultimate team effort." Indeed.

So while Brady was lining up another ring for his bejeweled hands, Rob Gronkowski was winning his third and playing in his fifth (he was on injured reserve for a fifth Super Bowl in New England), Jason Pierre-Paul was improving to 2-0 in Super Bowls, as was Shaq Barrett. Antonio Brown and Ndamukong Suh both got their second crack at a title and won for the first time. LeSean McCoy is the only player who will be able to wear rings from each of the last two Super Bowls, as he was with Kansas City last year when they won SBLIV. However, he did not actually play in either game. Steve McLendon was inactive for his only other Super Bowl appearance, and it was a loss, so he took two steps in the right direction on Sunday.

And then you have 39 Buccaneers who played in their first Super Bowls and earned their first rings, plus another three who were active but did not take any snaps, another seven who were on the 53-man roster but inactive for the game, 14 more on the practice squad and seven more on injured reserve. They all share in the glory.

While I'm appropriately awed by Brady's ever-growing list of unmatched accomplishments, like most fans I am particularly happy for those players getting their first taste of Super Bowl glory, and in many cases just the playoffs at all. And it's hard not to be especially glad that Lavonte David is now a champion.

David, of course, is the longest-tenured player on the Buccaneers' Super Bowl roster. There are others, like Brady, who have been in the league longer but nobody on this team has been a Buccaneer longer. It took nine seasons for David to get his first postseason exposure, and then four more games to get his first ring.

David continues to play at such a high level that he should have quite a few seasons to add to his own career accomplishments. For now, though, he has played in 141 games, including the postseason, which is the 10th-most in franchise history. The 138th of those 141 games was his first playoff contest and, of course, the 141st was his first Super Bowl. Does that make David the one player in franchise history who had to wait the longest for either of those two experiences?

Actually, no, though it's close. The top 10 players in team history in terms of games played (postseason included) are Ronde Barber (251), Derrick Brooks (235), Dave Moore (197), Paul Gruber (185), John Lynch (173), Mike Alstott (168), Tony Mayberry (164), Shelton Quarles (158), Warren Sapp (149) and David (141). Moore, Gruber and Mayberry never played in a Super Bowl, but they did appear in playoff games for the Buccaneers.

The Buccaneer who played the most games before making his first playoff appearance was Gruber, the iron man left tackle who is in the team's Ring of Honor at Raymond James Stadium. Gruber's first postseason game, a Wild Card win over Detroit in 1997, was the 152nd outing of his career. He is the only Buccaneer with more games played before his first playoff contest than David. Gruber was drafted in 1988, enjoyed his first playoff season in his 10th year in the league and then suffered a career-ending broken leg in the final game of the 1999 season, thus missing out on a second postseason run.

The Buccaneer who played the most games before reaching (and winning) his first Super Bowl was safety John Lynch. A 1993 draft pick who played the first 11 of his 15 NFL seasons in Tampa, Lynch also got his first shot at the playoffs in that 1997 Wild Card game. For him, however, it was the 73rd game of his career. It was also the 49th career game for Brooks and the 47th for Sapp. All three of those players would have to wait until the 2002 playoffs to make the Super Bowl, however, and for Lynch that would be the 159th game of his career. Just as before, Lynch is the only player with more games played as a Buccaneer before his first Super Bowl than David. Lynch, coincidentally, was on hand for the Bucs' second Super Bowl victory on Sunday, as he was in town for the announcement of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2021, of which he is a member.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have some players who got to experience Super Bowl glory very early in their Buccaneer careers. My first guess as to which player would have the fewest number of Buc games played before the Super Bowl was rookie outside linebacker Cam Gill, but he got into 15 games before the big one on Sunday, and that's not the lowest number on the roster. It was the 12th Buc game for defensive lineman Steve McLendon and the 11th for both Antonio Brown and Steve McLendon. The winner, however, is inside linebacker Deone Bucannon, who was playing in just his ninth game for Tampa Bay last Sunday.

None of those guys has DeVone Claybrooks beat, however. Claybrooks played two regular-season games for the Buccaneers in 2002 but was on the playoff roster. When he appeared in Super Bowl XXXVII, it was just the fifth game of his Tampa Bay career, and it would be his last.

Claybrooks surely registers as a very obscure name even for the most avid Buccaneer fans, but when it comes to getting your first playoff experience very early in your career, a name near the top of the list is among the greatest players in franchise history. That would be Ronde Barber, who played in just one regular-season game as a rookie in 1997 before being thrown into the fire as the Bucs' nickel back in a playoff game at Green Bay, just his second NFL outing. Barber's not quite at the top of the list, as there is at least one player whose first – and so far only – NFL game played was this year's NFC Championship. Rookie safety Javon Hagan was elevated from the practice squad for that contest and saw his first-ever NFL action. Quite a trick to pull off playing in the postseason before ever seeing action in the regular season!

So yeah congrats to every player on the Buccaneers' 2020 roster for their victory in Super Bowl LV. But maybe a little extra love for Lavonte David. Now, on to your questions.

A reminder that you can send questions to me anytime you want on Twitter (@ScottSBucs) and they're easier to find if you include the hashtag #SSMailbagBucs. We are also now soliciting questions each week on our Instagram page; look for that story on Wednesdays. As always, if you want to get a longer question into the mailbag and would prefer to email your question, you can do so to tbbsocial@buccaneers.nfl.com.

Which position needs to be a priority in the draft?

- @javierpulidof

I start with this question from Javier because I think it's funny that we're less than a week removed from WINNING THE SUPER BOWL, and we already want to move on to next year's draft. But you know what, Javier is right to bring it up because the Bucs really don't have much time to bask in the glory of their championship. As every Super Bowl winner (and runner-up, for that matter) discovers, the offseason suddenly becomes very compressed. We're only 12 days away from when teams can start using franchise tags!

So, yeah, this whole 2021 thing creeped up on us while we were riding high on the Bucs' 2020 playoff run. Of course, the Bucs' scouting department has already been working on the draft for a long time, but it's still a jarring conversational shift for most of us.

So…the 2021 draft. Let's start by pointing out that the Buccaneers own the 32nd pick in the first round, which is great. In a 32-team league where the draft is determined by the previous year's standings and playoff results, you always want to be picking 32nd. However, that doesn't make things easier for us when answering this question.

I'll start out with a basic answer to the question: I think the position the Buccaneers should be targeting early in the 2021 draft is edge rusher.

The Bucs had an outstanding pass rush in 2020, especially in the final two victories, and much of that was due to the talents of outside linebackers Shaquil Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul. That duo ate the lunches of the offensive tackles for Green Bay and Kansas City, respectively, and the pressure the Bucs were able to generate with a four-man rush was key in both contests as Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes were held largely in check.

So why target this position, then. Well, Barrett is a pending unrestricted free agent who played last season on the franchise tag, and he's clearly one of the best pass-rushers in the NFL. He wants to stay in Tampa and the Bucs would be insane not to feel the same way, but there is no guarantee during what is going to be a difficult offseason with a depressed salary cap. Also, Jason Pierre-Paul just turned 32 on New Year's Day and while he has clearly shown no signs of slowing down it doesn't hurt to plan for the future.

In addition, edge rusher is one position at which you can draft a player even if you already like your starters and know he can make an instant impact. If you drafted another inside linebacker, how would you work him into the mix when you already have Lavonte David (pending a new deal) and Devin White? On the edge, though, you can easily rotate three guys, and if they are all tough to handle that makes it very hard on the opposition.

That said, I'm a firm believer that it's really hard to find a high-impact edge rusher if you're not picking in the top half of the first round. The Saints' Trey Hendrickson is the exception that proves the rule. Hendrickson exploded for 13.5 sacks this season, and New Orleans got him near the end of the third round in 2017 (amid what is proving to be an epic draft class). But here are some edge rushers who went before Hendrickson in that round, and you tell me how often you've ever heard their names over the past four years: Dawaune Smoot, Chris Wormley, Daeshon Hall, Tarell Basham, Derek Rivers. I'm cherry-picking a bit here but I'm convinced it's hard to find difference-making edge rushers outside of the top 15 picks, and the Bucs are at 32.

But you never know. Maybe Michigan's Kwity Paye, Wake Forest's Carlos Basham, Washington's Joe Tryon or Texas' Joseph Ossai will fall to the last pick of the round and the Bucs will think one of those players has a chance to make an impact. The good news is that Tampa Bay's roster doesn't have any gaping holes, so they can take a player that might need a little while to develop.

Of course, I make that "no gaping holes" proclamation before the start of free agency, and things could look a lot different by the end of March. The Buccaneers are obviously going to do everything they can to keep as much of their Super Bowl-winning roster intact, and I'm very optimistic that Jason Licht and company will succeed in that effort. Still, a key player could move on, and that could very well change the Bucs' draft priorities. Interior defensive line, wide receiver, running back and inside linebacker could all move up the target list depending upon the outcomes with Ndamukong Suh, Chris Godwin, Antonio Brown, Leonard Fournette and Lavonte David.

Again, though, the roster is deep and weaknesses are hard to find. The Bucs might be in the best position in a while to truly go "best player available" or even trade out of the first round for additional picks.

Who will be the most crucial free agent to resign during the offseason?

- @jemiahtofye

We move on to a very related topic.

And this a real Sophie's Choice, Jemiah. You're expecting me to pick one from among, say, Shaq Barrett, Lavonte David, Chris Godwin, Rob Gronkowski and Ndamukong Suh, just to name a few? I want them all!

But, of course, pinpointing the most crucial player to re-sign (in my humble estimation) doesn't mean the Bucs can't also bring back all or most of the others. So I'll cross my fingers and hope that is exactly what happens.

The Bucs have a huge number of pending unrestricted free agents this spring, but I think I've already identified the five most important ones above. So, picking from that list, I'm going to go with Lavonte David. That may seem like a sentimental pick, and I may be guilty as charged, but I'm also taking into account how difficult each one would be to replace or live without.

With that in mind, I come down to David and Barrett. Yes, the Buccaneers could easily draft an inside linebacker with the 32nd-overall pick, but what are the chances that player will quickly be anywhere near as good as David is? I think the Super Bowl just showed us how rare it is for a team to have two players like David and Devin White in the middle of their defense and how much of a difference that can make. As David said after the big game, the Bucs trusted their front four to get to the passer, trusted their secondary to handle the edges and the back end and just let David and White take care of everything in the middle.

Meanwhile, you need only to scroll up the page a bit to get my thoughts on replacing Barrett. Look at all the greatest pass rushers in franchise history – Lee Roy Selmon, Warren Sapp, Simeon Rice, Jason Pierre-Paul, Gerald McCoy. They are all first-round draft picks, and most of them are top-10 selections. So when you take a flyer on a rotational player like Barrett was in Denver, hoping he'll produce good numbers with a chance to start, and he instead bursts from his chrysalis like a fully-formed quarterback-hunting butterfly, you are really onto something. The Buccaneers knew that when they used the franchise tag last year to make sure Barrett didn't get away, and now they're back in the same position after he showed what a difference he could make with gigantic games against the Packers and Chiefs. You can't possibly hope to find another diamond-in-the-rough like Barrett in free agency again and the 32nd pick is no sure thing, either.

I absolutely dread the thought of Chris Godwin being in any other uniform next year, and I also think Ndamukong Suh is probably the most underrated player on the 2020 Super Bowl team. I hope they both want to run it back in 2021, but if you make me pick just one player to be the top priority, it comes down to David and Barrett…and I'm going with Lavonte David. Call me sentimental.

Who do you think is a free agent we could target?

- @champabay_sports

So I've previously avoided questions like these before the start of free agency because I thought, as an actual team employee, anything I wrote could be considered tampering. However, we learned last year that this is not the case for a team website contributor, probably because my opinions would never actually affect the free agency process. So let's dive in!

You have to start here by considering where the need is on the depth chart, and as I noted earlier, the 2020 Buccaneers don't really have any glaring weaknesses. That's an unsurprising thing to say about a reigning Super Bowl champion. But we're moving on to 2021, and to continue beating the same drum I have been for this entire mailbag, things could change quickly once free agency hits.

The Bucs' secondary will return pretty much intact and I'm going to assume here that Lavonte David is back to complete the back seven. Conversely, I'll entertain the notion that either Ndamukong Suh or Shaq Barrett gets away (please, no), so the Bucs could be looking for help either on the inside or the edge. On offense, the line is all set, Tom Brady is coming back and I'm expecting we'll see a tight end trio of Rob Gronkowski, O.J. Howard and Cam Brate in 2021. So there could be openings at receiver or running back depending upon what happens with Godwin, Brown and Fournette.

I would expect any reactions at receiver or running back to start in-house. Ke'Shawn Vaughn could step into a bigger role alongside Ronald Jones. If the Bucs get either Godwin or Brown back they still have plenty of depth in Scotty Miller and Tyler Johnson. However, an opening on the D-Line or at outside linebacker might need some outside attention.

I'm also going to assume that the Bucs will be using the majority of their cap space to bring back their own players and thus won't be shopping in the premium aisle in free agency. As it turns out, there may not be a premium aisle for down linemen or edge rushers this year. Maybe the Buccaneers can convince a solid veteran or two to come join Tom Brady in the chase for another ring.

With that in mind, how about pending Broncos free agent Shelby Harris. The Bucs have their nose tackle in Vita Vea and would be more in the market for a Suh type who can rush the passer. Harris had six sacks in 11 games this past season. On the edge, I'd take a look at Baltimore's Matthew Judon, who is only 28 years old and might be more affordable after totaling just 6.0 sacks in 2020. He's a good fit for the Todd Bowles' scheme. If Judon still manages to command top dollar, maybe former Texan, Seahawk and Titan Jadeveon Clowney could be had on a one-year prove-it deal after a disappointing 2020.

Okay, so we just discussed the draft, the Bucs' pending free agents and potential free agent acquisitions. We've clearly moved on to 2021! This is a very early look at those issues and I fully expect my answers to change on all three in the coming months, particularly as we find out which of the Bucs' pending free agents will be back in the fold. But it's a start. There's something particularly enjoyable about discussing the ways to build a contending 2021 Bucs team when you already have the 2020 Lombardi Trophy in your back pocket.

And, finally, I have to share this email, as it was my favorite one of the year. It was actually sent in to our Salty Dogs podcast email, and we read it into our post-Super Bowl show this week, but it's just too good not to reprint here. If this had been sent in before the Super Bowl, I would have been tempted to steal part of it as the lead to my game story. I wouldn't have done that, but I would have been sorely tempted. Please allow Dillen from Germany to explain how the Bucs playing in their home stadium was a psychological advantage even after the NFL redecorated the whole place to make it as neutral as possible.

Hello Superdogs!

My name is Dillen and I'm a long time Buccaneers fan from Dortmund, Germany. So, you can brag about your ever-growing international audience now, and I have an excuse for every grammatical or orthographical error I make. Win-win …

I really enjoy your podcast and listen to it every week. Ok, almost every week, because after a real bad loss I can't stand any football related news at all. I just wanted to thank you for your great work, you made this awesome season even better!

What a joy it was to see the Bucs humble the glamorized and often more than a little cocky Chiefs on Sunday. To be precise, I was watching the game on Monday, because kickoff was at 00:30 local time. And after the confetti had settled and I had seen every highlight and every interview at least three times, I realized two things:

First, the sun would be rising soon and I was still wide awake.

And second: The bad things that happened to the Bucs this season actually were a blessing in disguise. The first game of the season in New Orleans, the Bears game, the game that that shall not be spoken of, the first quarter of the Chiefs regular season game. In my opinion, all these setbacks had to happen to mold the Bucs into a playoff caliber team. And then they had to go through the Superdome and Lambeau Field to get to the Super Bowl. The Chiefs on the other side were in calm waters the whole way. Some hiccups every now and then, but nothing Mahomes' magic with Hill and Kelce couldn't handle. Two playoff games at home, while listening to all that media hype about the new dynasty and the unstoppable offense and when Mahomes would be considered to be greater than Brady. Not if, when!

It was so fittingly that the NFL did not allow the Bucs to fire the cannons during the game. They even changed the sails and covered up the word "Buccaneers" on the ship's side. And like a pirate ship in disguise the so-called underdogs Bucs ambushed the mighty Chiefs in the biggest game of the season. And when the Chiefs finally realized that the Bucs are not who they thought they were, it was too late already. The first broadside had disabled them, and the boarding party was taking the deck by storm. The Chiefs had no backup plan, and they had no experience to handle a situation like this. Just look at the Chief's defenders giving up on Super Bowl Lenny's touchdown run. Or look at Kelce sitting on the field, shaking his head after an incompletion. Look at Mahomes throwing one desperation pass after another on the run, although that had not worked the whole game. And then look at the Bucs on the other side, running for one first down after another late in the game with the whole Kansas City defense stacking the box. And the Bucs' defenders playing like a touchdown would lose the game when the score was 31:9 late in the fourth quarter.

Best. Game. Ever.

So, thank you again, and I look forward to next season with my beloved Buccaneers and your great podcast! Until that, happy Victory Offseason! (Not for Thomas Edward Patrick Brady, Jr. of course. He starts preparing for the next season by Tuesday, I think. That's the spirit!)

GO BUCS!

Dillen

Thanks, Dillen. Next February, send me your ideas BEFORE the big game! I need all the help I can get.