{"id":103938,"date":"2021-03-09T16:44:34","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T21:44:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=103938"},"modified":"2021-03-09T16:44:34","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T21:44:34","slug":"lavonte-david-signs-extension-with-tampa-bay-buccaneers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2021\/03\/09\/lavonte-david-signs-extension-with-tampa-bay-buccaneers\/","title":{"rendered":"Lavonte David Signs Extension With Tampa Bay Buccaneers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nine-year NFL veteran linebacker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/D\/DaviLa00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lavonte David<\/a> signed a five-year, contract with three voidable years that essentially functions as a two-year, $25 million extension.\u00a0David, a one-time Super Bowl champion, spent the entirety of his NFL career with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/nfl-teams2\/buccaneers\/\" target=\"_self\">Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">It\u2019ll be a five-year deal with three voidable years for LB Lavonte David that keeps his cap number at a manageable $3.5 million for the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Buccaneers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Buccaneers<\/a> this year. Voidable years are all the rage this year as teams maneuver around the cap decrease.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MikeGarafolo\/status\/1369402403540377607?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 9, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Lavonte David, ***TEAM***, Agree to Contract<\/h2>\n<p>Lavonte David is one of the best linebackers of his time, and 2020 was yet another fantastic season for the Nebraska product. Starting and appearing in all 16 games, David finished the season with 118 tackles, 12 tackles-for-loss, 1.5 sacks, three quarterback hits, one interception, and six passes broken up. These numbers are solid, but they don&#8217;t truly convey how well he played in 2020. According to Pro Football Focus, David was the fourth-best linebacker in the NFL, and he played one of the most important roles in <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2021\/02\/07\/tampa-bay-buccaneers-super-bowl-lv\/\" target=\"_self\">slowing down<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/M\/MahoPa00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Patrick Mahomes<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/nfl-teams2\/chiefs\/\" target=\"_self\">Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> offense.<\/p>\n<p>David initially entered the NFL as a second-round pick in the 2012 NFL Draft. Selected by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, David immediately won the starting job and made a positive impact for the team. During his rookie season, the Nebraska product recorded 139 tackles, 20 tackles-for-loss, five quarterback hits, two sacks, one interception, and four passes defended. While this rookie season was impressive, David took his play to the next level in 2013.<\/p>\n<p>Once again starting all 16 games, David recorded 145 tackles, 21 tackles-for-loss, 13 quarterback hits, seven sacks, five interceptions, and 10 passes defended en route to winning First-Team All-Pro honors. Two years later, David earned a Pro Bowl nomination after recording 147 tackles, 10 tackles-for-loss, five quarterback hits, 13 passes defended, three interceptions, and 13 defended passes.<\/p>\n<p>David maintained his high level of play throughout the course of his career. However, he never had a chance to play in the postseason prior to the 2020 season. With <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/B\/BradTo00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tom Brady<\/a> in town, David helped guide Tampa Bay&#8217;s defense all the way to the Super Bowl while slowing down a trio of elite quarterbacks in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/B\/BreeDr00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Drew Brees<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/R\/RodgAa00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aaron Rodgers<\/a>, and Patrick Mahomes.<\/p>\n<p>Main photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"gkJMmVDfRyJjR07oUEPGBw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1300915833\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'gkJMmVDfRyJjR07oUEPGBw',sig:'oC7Q4YdLad3bbSQJZFJKxfVOMijO6rDYNpq6thThRhY=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1300915833',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nine-year veteran linebacker Lavonte David is no longer a free agent. David spent the 2020 NFL season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":103948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,29],"tags":[61,2170,40,1608,246,7331,7523],"class_list":["post-103938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-buccaneers","tag-football","tag-lavonte-david","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-free-agency","tag-nfl-news","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers-news","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers-roster"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}