Winning football games gets you recognition. Not just locally, but league wide as well.

A Bucs player earned an award this week after Tampa Bay beat the Panthers on Thursday night. Something a defensive player in Tampa Bay hasn’t earned since 2015.

The National Football League on Wednesday announced that Tampa Bay Buccaneers outside linebacker Shaquil Barrett was named NFC Defensive Player of the Week for Week 2.

Against the Carolina Panthers, Barrett recorded a career-best three sacks and four quarterback hits in a 20-14 win for Tampa Bay. The Colorado State product became the first Buccaneers player to record three-or-more sacks in a game since Jacquies Smith at New Orleans on 9/20/15.

Bucs OLB Shaq Barrett – Photo by: Getty Images

Barrett notched all three of his sacks during the third quarter, becoming one of just 11 players to accomplish that feat since he entered the league in 2014. He joined Simeon Rice (first quarter at New Orleans on 12/1/02) as the only two Buccaneers players since at least 1991 to collect three-plus sacks in a single quarter.

Following Week 2 action, Barrett currently ranks first in the NFC and second in the NFL with 4.0 sacks on the season, trailing only Cleveland’s Myles Garrett (5.0). The four sacks tie Barrett for the most in franchise history through two games. The Baltimore, Maryland, native also leads the Buccaneers with five quarterback hits on the season to go along with his eight tackles.

Barrett is Tampa Bay’s first NFC Player of the Week this season and the first Buccaneers Player of the Week winner since Ryan Fitzpatrick won NFC Offensive Player of the Week last season in Weeks 1 and 2. Barrett joins a list of 20 Buccaneers players to have been named NFC Player of the Week in their first season with the team, including seven defensive players.

He is the first Buccaneers defensive player to win the award since Lavonte David earned it for his performance in Week 11 of the 2015 NFL season.

-Some of this report courtesy of the Buccaneers communications department