Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Photos: Five Triumphant Returns from I.R.
Mike Williams signed a big six-year contract in the offseason, but his first year under the new deal ended with him on injured reserve. Not to worry; plenty of former Bucs have come back from I.R. with huge seasons.
Following his Pro Bowl breakthrough in 2008, guard Davin Joseph was helping a very young Bucs team make a surprise push to the playoffs in 2010 when he sustained a broken foot on the first drive of the team's November 28 game at Baltimore. The loss of Joseph was a serious blow for the Buccaneers' offense, but it also threatened down the all-star blocker's own momentum. Joseph wouldn't let that happen, returning in time to start every game in 2011 and once again prove himself as one of the NFL's best interior linemen. His peers helped vote him to the Pro Bowl once again at the end of his comeback campaign.
The Bucs repeatedly hit the jackpot on draft weekend in the 1990s with the picks of John Lynch, Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks and Ronde Barber, but the rise of Tampa Bay's incredible defense in that era was also attributable to the presence of middle linebacker Hardy Nickerson, a free agent signing in 1993. Nickerson was in the midst of his fourth Pro Bowl season in 1998 when he got a scary diagnosis: pericarditis, an infection of the sac around the heart. Nickerson was forced to miss the last six games of the year, but he came back in 1999 for one more outstanding year in a Bucs' uniform. He started all 16 games and racked up 141 tackles, two interceptions, three forced fumbles and 0.5 sacks as the Bucs advanced all the way to the NFC Championship Game.
RB Cadillac Williams burst onto the NFL scene in 2005 with the most rushing yards ever by a player in his first three NFL games, but the vast potential suggested by that debut was never quite fulfilled due to an unfortunate run of injuries. The first season-ending injury occurred in 2007, and it was so severe that Williams didn't return to the field until there were six games left in 2008. Lamentably, ill fortune struck Williams again in the 2008 finale when he suffered another serious injury to his other knee. Some feared that one would end his career, and the Bucs signed RB Derrick Ward to combine with Earnest Graham knowing Williams was an unknown quantity for 2009. Amazingly, Williams not only returned but leap-frogged Graham and Ward for the starting job, played 16 games for the first time in his career and recorded 1,040 yards from scrimmage.
The first pick in the 1976 NFL Draft, DE Lee Roy Selmon was also the first college draft pick ever by Tampa Bay, the NFL's 27th franchise. It wouldn't take long for Selmon to become the face of the franchise, but it would take one extra season for him to fully take the league by storm. That's because his rookie campaign was interrupted after just eight games (and five sacks) by knee and elbow injuries. Selmon came back to camp in 1977 fully recovered from both ailments and immediately ripped off 13.0 sacks in his first full NFL season. That would remain his single-season career high, though he approached that number several more times on his way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
A second-round pick in the 1981 draft, RB James Wilder started his career with two good seasons, though he mostly started at fullback and was used more in the passing game than the running game. He became the primary ballcarrier in 1983 and was off to a fantastic start before breaking two ribs in the team's 11th game and landing on injured reserve. Wilder came back in 1984 as the undisputed starting tailback and was obviously fully recovered because he was given the football more often than any other player in team history, before or sense. Wilder set a since-broken NFL record with 407 carries and also caught 85 passes. His 1,544 rushing yards and 2,229 yards from scrimmage remain the top single-season totals in franchise history.
