Lavonte David Thinks Bucs Can Maintain Winning Culture
The Bucs have already undergone some major changes this offseason, and those changes figure to threaten the winning culture the team has established in recent years. It wasn’t too long ago that Tampa Bay was the losingest of losing franchises, but Bruce Arians’ arrival in 2019 and then the addition of Tom Brady in 2020 changed that.
The last three years have seen the team win a Super Bowl and two NFC South titles while playing to a 37-20 overall record (including the playoffs). And even though 2022 was largely a disappointment due to the 8-9 record and first-round playoff exit, it wasn’t long ago that a division championship and a home playoff game would’ve sounded like something the Bucs’ faithful would come up with in their wildest dreams.
Now, with Brady retired and some of the key pieces of the team headed elsewhere, Tampa Bay will have to fight to keep its culture going. The Bucs can’t let last year’s 8-9 record lead to a downward spiral that erases what was built over the previous couple of years. And while it’ll be a group effort to carry everything over to a new era, longtime captain Lavonte David is ready to approach that challenge head-on.
Lavonte David And Bucs Leaders Will Have To Lead The Charge
As the longest-tenured member of the Bucs’ roster, Lavonte David knows what the team’s losing days were like. He’s one of the few to be around long enough to experience some extreme lows in red, white and pewter before finally reaching the sport’s pinnacle on Feb. 7, 2021. And it’s a safe bet that the 33-year-old linebacker didn’t re-sign with the team to experience those pre-2020 struggles again.
To avoid going back to the “It’s a Bucs Life” days, David knows he and the team’s leaders have some work to do, especially when it comes to teaching the many newcomers that are bound to find themselves wearing the uniform this season.
“With the guys who have been around, who’ve been in it and know what it takes,” David said Thursday. “We need everybody to buy in and do what we’re trying to do as a football team – that’s trying to win games and win the division, first and foremost. For the most part, we’ve got a lot of those core guys that have been in the locker room and know what it takes to get there.
“We know how to do it and all you’ve got to do it is just pass it on to the guys that are new in the building. But like I said, we did lose a lot of key people who are going to have some people filling in their roles and they’ll have some big shoes to fill, but I feel like with the locker room we have, everybody will fit in really well.”
Given their salary cap situation, the Bucs had to make some tough decisions this offseason. Left tackle Donovan Smith, running back Leonard Fournette, tight end Cameron Brate, right guard Shaq Mason and kicker Ryan Succop are all gone. Rakeem Nunez-Roches and Sean Murphy-Bunting, two mainstays over the last four years, signed elsewhere as free agents. Add in Brady’s retirement and Tampa Bay is bound to have a new look and feel this season.
Baker Mayfield was signed to compete with 2021 second-round pick Kyle Trask for the team’s starting quarterback job. Chase Edmonds was brought in to bolster the backfield that will now be led by 2022 third-round pick Rachaad White. Former Rams defensive tackle Greg Gaines is another newcomer, and as the Bucs continue to build their roster, there will be a lot of new faces. As David said, it’s up to him and the team’s other veterans to bring everybody into the fold and keep that culture intact.
The Bucs Have A Solid Core In Place To Keep Competing
The good news is, David has plenty of help. There are quite a few veterans on the Bucs’ roster who have been around as a new identity was built within the walls of the team facility over the last few years. Mike Evans is another one of the team’s longest-tenured veterans. Chris Godwin, Tristan Wirfs, Ryan Jensen, Vita Vea, Shaquil Barrett, Devin White, Carlton Davis III, Jamel Dean and Antoine Winfield Jr. all figure to be big parts of the effort to keep everything going in 2023 and beyond.
That’s the team’s core, and while some value free agent signings and new draftees will round out the roster, David believes the Bucs have a reason to feel confident as the team turns the corner into a new era.
“I’m comfortable in what we’ve got. We’ve got a majority of our locker room still there, still intact,” David said. “We lost some key pieces, obviously, but a majority of our locker room is still intact and that’s something that I really like. Obviously, we added a quarterback and then we added another guy on the defensive line. We lost some guys on the defensive line and then added Jamel Dean back so that was a big thing for us, for the organization.
“I feel like we still are going to be a confident group. We won the division in back-to-back years and now we’re trying to seek a third year. I’m sure everybody feels like they could take the division, but I feel like we’ve got the guys in the locker room with the people we added to have that competitive fire to get us to where we need to be.”
