The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Lavonte David are a great match.
The talented defender will be back at Raymond James Stadium for the 13th season.
And while not many players are able to make such a big impact that deep into their careers, GM Jason Licht believes he’s coming off the best campaign of his career.
That’s why he signed him to a one-year deal to bring him back.
More than that, Licht believes David embodies everything the organization looks for in a player (via Around the NFL).
“He is the epitome of it,” Licht said. “He is the poster child, literally, for us. We have a silhouette of a Bucs player in our draft room that says, ‘I am that man,’ and this is the person that we want in a player — the traits that we just said — and it doesn’t show his face, but it is Lavonte. He is the one that we look for every year. He is the standard.”
General manager Jason Licht: Lavonte David “is the standard” of what Buccaneers look for in playerhttps://t.co/w1k3w0UD5c pic.twitter.com/OtiBBEqI8C
— Around The NFL (@AroundTheNFL) March 23, 2024
The Bucs took the 34-year-old in the second round of the 2012 NFL Draft.
He’s coming off posting 134 tackles and adding 4.5 sacks — his most since 2016 — in 15 appearances for Todd Bowles’ team.
David has been instrumental in the Buccaneers’ three consecutive NFC South Division titles, and they’ll need him at his best next season, with the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons both getting better.
Some thought he was ready to ride into the sunset and call it quits after their loss in the NFC Divisional Round to the Detroit Lions, but it seems like the star linebacker isn’t ready to walk away from the game just yet, and the Bucs will gladly have him for as long as he wants to keep on playing.
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