Bucs’ Lavonte David gets real about his feelings about Todd Bowles and if he’d play somewhere else
Tampa Bay’s living legend made his feelings clear about the team’s decision to keep its head coach.
It’s been a rough month for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The team missed the playoffs for the first time since the 2019 season and ended up with a losing record after surging to a 6-2 start to the season.
The futures of Mike Evans and Lavonte David are both in question, with both set to become free agents.
While there’s been speculation about Evans’ future with the team, David made things clear where he stands on Thursday, when he appeared on the “Up and Adams Show” with Kay Adams. When asked about his feelings about Todd Bowles’ return and whether he would play anywhere else, David showed his strong support for his head coach and the Tampa Bay community.
Lavonte David says he wouldn’t come back without Todd Bowles
“Yeah, if Bowles wasn’t coming back, it was no shot [of a return to Tampa Bay],” David said. “That’s a fact. Me and Bowles just have that relationship. That’s my guy, man. I’ve gotten extremely comfortable with him. Comfortable with his defense. Our relationship is just like that, from a player-coach relationship that I always wanted.
“The past seven years I’ve been working with him, it’s been really, really fun and a joy to just understand his football knowledge. And for me, being in Year 14, still learning things about football. Most people are probably like, ‘Oh, I have it all figured out.’ But every year he’s teaching me something new, every time.
“Him, as a man as a person, man, everybody in the locker room loves him. Obviously, the media and the fans give him a hard time because you don’t see no character out of him, but we see it all, so that’s why we love him.
“It definitely would have been a different talk if he wasn’t coming back, but you know, that’s my guy. We have constant communication, and he’ll be one of the first people to know what my decision would be.”
David says it’s Tampa Bay or nowhere for him next season
Adams followed up with a question about whether David would consider playing for another team, and David said that he wouldn’t.
“To be honest with you, I don’t think so,” David said. “It’s Bucs or nowhere else. I played my fourteen-year career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and they’ve been real. They’ve been loyal to me. Fans have been real loyal to me. My family has grown to love the city. They know everybody in the building. I know everybody in the building. The relationships with the guys that I’ve built throughout my career, and especially those younger guys that I’ve built relationships with.
“I don’t think me being somewhere else, I won’t feel right. I don’t know if I’ll be able to take it serious enough, stuff like that. It would probably feel awkward, feel weird because I know the ins and outs of that building at One Buc, and me walking into another city or into another building would be a different aspect for me, a different training ground for me. Being this late in my career, I don’t think I’d be able to withstand that.
“I’m a Buc. They’ve been loyal to me all these years.”
So, it’s pretty clear that David is indeed 100% Buccaneer. The team that drafted him in the second round of the 2012 NFL Draft will be the only one, at least at this point, that David will consider playing for in 2026.
There’s plenty of work to be done to address the shortcomings of a roster that fell apart on the field during a 2-7 stretch to finish the season. But if Jason Licht and Bowles indeed can indeed work to address some issues this season, particularly in the pass rush department and with linebacker depth, then perhaps one last ride for David could end up with a happier ending for the future Hall of Famer than how 2025 fizzled out.
