National outlet gives Tampa Bay Buccaneers' most underappreciated defender his proper due
It's hard to believe that a serious Hall of Fame candidate could be underappreciated. However, year after year, that's the case with Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Lavonte David. The 2012 second round of the Buccaneers out of Nebraska, David has been nothing but a stud during his twelve years in the league. Yet, given his […]
It's hard to believe that a serious Hall of Fame candidate could be underappreciated. However, year after year, that's the case with Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Lavonte David.
The 2012 second round of the Buccaneers out of Nebraska, David has been nothing but a stud during his twelve years in the league. Yet, given his steady production at a high level, one would think his name would have landed on more radars when talking about the best linebackers in the league from year to year. That largely hasn't happened.
However, one outlet gave him a relatively fair shake in their recent ranking of linebackers. Pro Football Focus put out their list of top linebackers ahead of the 2024 season on Friday, and David came in a respectable sixth.
David, 34, is coming off his lowest season-long PFF coverage grade since 2015. That being said, his 68.6 mark still ranked inside the top 25 at the position, and we only have to go back to 2022 to find him inside the top five, with his 88.0 PFF coverage grade placing second among linebackers. – Gordon McGuinness, Pro Football Focus
The top five above David are Fred Warner, Roquan Smith, Demario Davis, Matt Milano, and C.J. Mosley. The first three are understandable picks and are hard to argue with.
However, if you look at PFF's own numbers, David has a strong case to be the fourth linebacker ahead of Milano and Mosley. Over the previous four years, Milano and Mosley both have unbecoming grades in some categories in the 30s or 40s. Milano, who missed the remainder of the season last year after suffering an injury in Week 5, had a tackling grade of 45.0 last year.
David hasn't. He's been consistently in the 70s or better in all categories with a handful that have dipped into the 60s the last few years. In 2023, he posted 72.3/75/74.8/71/68.6 in defense-run defense-tackling-pass rush-coverage, respectively.
So, it's interesting that, based on their own grades, David isn't even higher on the list. That being said, it's still a pretty fair ranking for the Bucs' veteran defender.
We'll see this fall if he can prove that he still hasn't lost a step as he looks to climb in the ranks in a number of statistical categories to add to his Hall of Fame case.
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