The selection process for a Mount Rushmore of former Bucs players— part of a project from the Times Sports department that includes an overall Mount Rushmore of Tampa Bay athletes — is first incredibly easy, and then exceedingly difficult.

Three spots are, as they say, set in stone. The fourth? Not so easy to carve out. Is there room for a fifth in there?

RELATED: Here's the Mount Rushmore of Tampa Bay sports

Lee Roy Selmon

The first draft pick in the team's first season in 1976, he became an icon in the community and a Pro Football Hall of Famer. He's beloved enough we still pay to drive on the expressway that carries his name, and we're now mourning the loss of the restaurant that did the same. The tough defense the franchise is best known for started with No. 63, from the very beginning.

Warren Sapp

Another Pro Football Hall of Famer, Sapp was the brash, confident front of Tampa Bay's dominant defense, both leading up to and in their Super Bowl win against the Raiders in January 2003. He finished his career in Oakland, but had 77 sacks with the Bucs, along with seven Pro Bowl seasons and four nods as a first-team All-Pro.

Derrick Brooks

Like Selmon, as beloved in the community as on the field, deservedly joining teammate Sapp in Canton. Brooks was NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2002 when the Bucs won their only Super Bowl championship. He played 221 games, made 11 Pro Bowls and was a five-time first-team All-Pro selection, but fans will remember him best holding the ball high as he went in for a clinching pick-six touchdown with 1:18 left in the Super Bowl.

John Lynch

Another huge foundational part of the Bucs defense under Tony Dungy and in the Super Bowl, Lynch earned a reputation as a hard hitter when the game still embraced it. He finished his career in Denver and is now the 49ers' general manager, but Bucs fans know No. 47 for his 23 career interceptions, setting the tone with smart, physical play in the secondary.

You could make a strong case for Ronde Barber as a fourth Bucs player on the team's Rushmore. Barber had an amazing longevity, and perhaps the single greatest moment in Bucs history, with his interception to seal a win over Philadelphia and lock up a trip to the Super Bowl. His rare combination of interceptions (47, eight returned for TDs) and sacks (28) may eventually get him to Canton before Lynch even.

It seems inarguable that a Bucs Rushmore would be entirely on defense, as the franchise's stars have been tilted to that side of the ball. The best quarterbacks had their biggest success elsewhere. Perhaps Mike Evans can pile up enough 1,000-yard seasons and incredible catches to someday stake a claim to a spot there, or Jameis Winston if he can push through off-field problems and lead the team back to the playoffs and national relevance.

Contact Greg Auman at gauman@tampabay.com and (813) 310-2690. Follow @gregauman

Editor's Note: News of Lightning great Marty St. Louis' impending induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame got those of us in the Times sports department thinking: If Tampa Bay had a Mount Rushmore of sports, who would be on it? You can read columnist Tom Jones' answer to that here, but we didn't want to stop there. We also picked Mount Rushmores for each major league franchise in our market, a bay-area colleges Mount and one for individual sports.

You can share your thoughts about our selections in the comment sections or on our Facebook page.