THE STANDARD. pic.twitter.com/ON7oYdsLtm
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) March 22, 2024
When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers traded back into the bottom of the second round in the 2012 NFL draft for an undersized linebacker out of Nebraska, they probably didn’t know they were getting one of the most legendary players in franchise history.
That’s exactly what Lavonte David has become, though.
And after 12 seasons with the Bucs, he’s still not done yet.
David officially signed his new one-year deal with the Bucs on Friday, meaning No. 54 will be wrecking opposing offenses in a Tampa Bay jersey for a 13th year.
“He is the epitome of it,” Bucs general manager Jason Licht said Friday when asked about David being the example of what the team looks for every year in the draft. “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.”
After holding the locker room together through some lean seasons earlier in his career (alongside fellow longtime leader Mike Evans), David has finally tasted sustained team success in recent years. The Bucs have made the playoffs in each of the past four seasons, winning a Super Bowl and taking home the NFC South crown three years in a row.
Last year, at 33 years old, David was still one of the best players in the NFL at his position, continuing to set a high bar for both himself and his teammates.
It doesn’t look like that’s gonna change anytime soon.
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