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With all the talk this offseason for Bucs centered on Antoine Winfield Jr., Baker Mayfield and Mike Evans, let’s not also forget that future Bucs Ring of Honor member Lavonte David is a free agent as well. And even though David is 34 and has played 12 seasons, he’s still doing it at a very high level. Ronde Barber, a Bucs Hall of Famer who still works for the team as an analyst, has seen that first-hand. David is so important to what Tampa Bay does on defense and needs to return in 2024.
That is why as important as it is to bring back some of other previously mentioned Bucs, it’s just as imperative that Lavonte David returns, too. The Bucs were in a similar boat last season as David was a free agent and they signed him to a one-year deal that wound up totaling $7 million with incentives that he hit.
To be honest, David is worth more than that but age is working against him, and other teams don’t want to shell out that kind of money to an aging veteran. The fact that Bobby Wagner got a big contract a couple of seasons ago and never lived up the deal does not help out David’s case. There’s no question that David should be paid a lot more.
Lavonte David recorded a team-high 134 tackles on the season with 17 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, one forced fumble and five pass breakups in 15 games. Those tackles were the most he’s had since 2015, the tackles for loss was the most David put together since 2016.
And the sacks? Well, that was the second-most of his career, only trailing the seven sacks he racked up in 2013, which happened to be the year he was first-team All-Pro. One could easily say that David has aged gracefully. The Bucs could sure use him again.
Right before the beginning of the playoffs, Lavonte David was asked if he wanted to keep playing for the Bucs next year. While he spent most of his response saying he was focused on the postseason taking it game by game, he did finish his statement with “When it’s all said and done, we will probably have a talk.”
Lavonte David Could Take Ronde Barber’s Approach
Of course all of this is relies on if Lavonte David would like to continue playing football and in Tampa. If he does want to, he can take similar steps that his former teammate Ronde Barber took as well. Barber, a Bucs Ring of Honor member and NFL Hall of Famer, took it year by year at the end of his career.
Appearing on the Jay And Z Show on WDAE, Barber believed he could see Lavonte David taking a similar approach to it when answering on if he thought David, Baker Mayfield and Mike Evans would return to the Bucs this season.
“My gut feeling at the end of the season was that they would all be back,” Barber told Jay Recher and Zac Blobner. “At least that’s the feeling that I have, that Mike would be back with Baker as his quarterback and Lavonte, he’s still got it. We saw him at the end of last year, he still looks early 30s. He doesn’t look like a guy that’s been in the league for 13 years. If he’s going to play, I would imagine they’d give him a one-year deal.
“I did that at the end of my career, I signed three one-year deals at the end of my career so I could just keep playing here and then finally the wheels fell off and I was done. I would imagine that’s kind of where Lavonte is headed, but he’s had a fantastic career whatever he decides, it is what it is. I don’t see him playing anywhere but (here).”
“My gut feeling….was that they would all be back” #Bucs Hall of Famer @rondebarber on @JayAndZWDAE with @jayRecher & @ZacOnTheMic discussing the futures of Lavonte David, Baker Mayfield & Mike Evans in #TampaBay #GoBucs #NFL pic.twitter.com/RnxjvUCTpt
— WDAE (Tampa Bay's Sports Radio) (@953WDAE) February 20, 2024
The wheels certainly haven’t fallen off for David and hopefully that doesn’t happen anytime soon. The Bucs did start planning for what their defense could look like without Lavonte David after drafting inside linebacker SirVocea Dennis last year, but keeping David around would mean a lot to many people.
Check out Recher and Blobner’s whole interview with Barber on the iHeart WDAE website. You can also listen to the Jay And Z Show and all of the WDAE programming there as well.
More must-reads:
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