There’s no shortage of talent on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ roster heading into 2020. With guys like Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, the Bucs look more like a team straight out of Madden or fantasy football.
Big things are expected out of Bruce Arians’ team in 2020, and if the Bucs are going to make a serious run at the playoffs, they’ll also need their defense to continue to improve under Todd Bowles. The D has plenty of talent as well, and retained key players this offseason like Ndamukong Suh, Jason Pierre-Paul and Shaq Barrett. But, there’s another defender who is perhaps the team’s most underappreciated player, at least according to Cynthia Frelund of NFL.com, and that’s linebacker Lavonte David.
Using context-based models, Frelund came to this conclusion about David:
“With the most tackles on the team (122 — the next closest Buccaneer had 91), 10 tackles for loss, a fumble recovery and an interception, David was the kind of productive middle-of-the-field defender Todd Bowles knows how to best deploy. PFF counted his coverage grade as 91.4, which was the highest among linebackers last season (among those with a minimum of 100 snaps).”
Bucs fans definitely appreciate David and what he brings to the table. With the Bucs appearing in five prime-time games this season, David will get the chance to showcase his skills on the national stage. Maybe then he’ll receive the attention and credit he deserves from the rest of the league.
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