Over the course of a few short weeks, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ahve seen two franchise cornerstones leave the NFC South.
First came wide receiver Mike Evans, who finally tested the free agency waters and agreed to terms on a new deal with the San Francisco 49ers. That brings to an end a run in Tampa Bay that saw Evans set almost every single Buccaneers franchise receiver records, post 11 consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons to begin his career (an NFL record) and match Jerry Rice with those 11 seasons, and be part of the team that won Super Bowl LV.
Now it is linebacker Lavonte David, who announced on Tuesday that after 14 seasons in the NFL — all of which came in Tampa Bay — he is retiring from the game:
After playing at Nebraska, where he was a member of the famed “Blackshirts” and secured All-American honors twice, David was drafted in the second round of the 2012 NFL Draft. Over the course of his NFL career he secured All-Pro honors three times (including a First-Team selection in 2013), and was named to the Pro Bowl in 2015.
He also walks away from the game having set several franchise records, including most combined tackles in a career (1,716), most tackles for a loss in a career (176), most forced fumbles in a career (33), and most tackles for loss in a season (21).
David also finished his career fourth all-time in NFL history in solo tackles and seventh all-time in league history in combined tackles.
The upcoming question regarding David might be if his next stop is in Canton. What could hurt his case is how the outside linebacker position evolved over his career, into more of a pass rushing position.
But two metrics that could certainly help his case?
Expect this debate to be a major focus five years from now.
