“He Hasn’t Lost A Step”
June 12th, 2025
Few fans want to even whisper that Lavonte David is an X-factor, a huge one, for this coming season.
Keep in mind David will be older on opening day than fellow Bucs legend Derrick Brooks was when he played his final game in 2008.
Joe can’t stomach the thought of iconic David retiring, or worse, looking like a shell of himself. Brooks’ final season wasn’t up to his elite standard and yes, that could happen to David. Father Time has a hell of a record.
However, David is impressing those around him and not showing signs of the wheels coming off.
“He hasn’t lost a step,” Zyon McCollum told WDAE radio yesterday. “You would not be able to tell how old he is. I mean, and he just has so much experience it just spills off into all the young guys and to the entire defense. You know, guys in our mid-20s, early 20s, you know we can’t get tired around him because he doesn’t get tired.”
McCollum added that David likes to poke teammates and push them in practice saying, ‘You’re not going to let no old man beat you out.’
Joe won’t be greedy and ask the football gods for two more David seasons, but it feels like one more David-like year in 2025 isn’t too much to ask.
June 12th, 2025 at 12:03 pm
5th all time in solo tackles and still going strong!
June 12th, 2025 at 12:08 pm
Thanks Joe & team for all the great coverage of our mini camps. Go Bucs.
June 12th, 2025 at 12:13 pm
David’s play hasn’t really fallen off at all and the way he was talking to Gruden sounded to me like he wants to keep going… we can only hope.
June 12th, 2025 at 12:17 pm
The main difference in Brooks and LVD at this age is that Brooks had lost too many steps and was too slow to be out there and LVD seemingly hasn’t lost a single step.
Brooks played one season too many, in my opinion.
LVD can still play a couple more after this one I think.
LVD still clocked over 20mph last year.
Dude is a beast.
June 12th, 2025 at 12:22 pm
I remember LT of the Chargers beating Brooks in a footrace to the pylon. It wasn’t close and I actually felt bad for Brooks.
June 12th, 2025 at 12:33 pm
2 is better than 1 Joes!!! Just don’t start giving him any of those coconut donuts you have been giving Ira!
June 12th, 2025 at 12:33 pm
It’s not the acceleration that kills you. It’s the sudden stop.
1600+ collisions / tackles is bound to tweak the frame a bit.
Older Fellas won’t usually let the Young in’s outwork them on the job. They may have to go Home and soak extra long in the bath salts but the Kid will never know it.
June 12th, 2025 at 12:36 pm
Derrick Brooks vs Lavvonte David stats side by side
Derrick Brooks played 14 seasons for the Buccaneers. He had 681 solo tackles, 218 assists, 13.5 sacks, 4 fumble recoveries and 25 interceptions in 224 games in his career. He was selected for 11 Pro Bowls, was Defensive Player of the year in 2002 and has won 1 championship.
Lavonte David has played 13 seasons for the Buccaneers. He has had 1,111 solo tackles, 491 assists, 39.0 sacks, 19 fumble recoveries and 13 interceptions in 198 games. He was selected to play in 1 Pro Bowl, and has won 1 championship
June 12th, 2025 at 1:00 pm
Can Zyon really speak on David’s peak years though? So when he says hasn’t lost a step, is this relative to last year? Look, the mans name will be on Ray Jay forever and he likely gets voted first or second ballot hall of fame, but 2 things fell off big time last year: Tackling in space and coverage. Was it as glaring as the other defensive weaknesses? No, but if that stuff drops off even more this year then needless to say thats not ideal. We need him to hang on for one more year as a better than avg OLB
June 12th, 2025 at 1:06 pm
LVD ALL TIME BUC!
June 12th, 2025 at 1:15 pm
Last year wasn’t to bad for him just those injuries to other players and having kj play next to him last year he kinda had to over compensate for other players that was the issue
June 12th, 2025 at 1:29 pm
Jayson Lite – if you are going to post the stats of a player – at least get them correct….
Using AI to try and get accurate info was your problem it looks like
Derrick Brooks – 1713 combined tackles – 1300 solo tackles – 25 Ints – 84 passes defensed – 13.5 sacks – 24 forced fumbles
June 12th, 2025 at 1:39 pm
@Erik
I think most of the great players all play one year too many
The fall off in ability is much more steep for a truly great player (think Brooks, Sapp, Brady, Manning) than the decline of a decent to good NFL player.
I know that seems harsh and I certainly don’t mean any disrespect it’s just that when someone performs at an extremely high level for many years they don’t seem to fade out. They seem to just abruptly stop being able to perform.
June 12th, 2025 at 3:03 pm
Statistically speaking, David had one of his better years last year, 122 tackles, 5.5 sacks, an INT and 3 FFs. The only number that was under his career norm was tackles for loss, which is to be expected when Bowles is playing that awful, trash, garbage, soft zone defense – it’s hard to get TFL’s loss when you’re running backwards at the snap on 90% of plays by design.
If Bowles is going back to a more aggressive defense, David should have a very big year, hopefully another ALL-PRO performance to help his HOF candidacy.
June 12th, 2025 at 3:03 pm
Between Brooks and David it’s just the difference in the individual, David may have a few more years in him than Brooks did but the body of work is very similar. Let me ask you a question: Would you choose Brooks over David in the draft knowing what we know?
June 12th, 2025 at 3:11 pm
Fan of the South, you must have watched The Accountant 2. Funniest line in the movie!
June 12th, 2025 at 3:31 pm
Look at the game against the Redskins!
He beat Jayden Daniels to the sideline for a huge 3rd down stop!
LVD ain’t slowing down!
June 12th, 2025 at 3:36 pm
Ballwasher
Brooks all day everyday. No disrespect to David.
Brooks made Tampa two the Tampa two.
June 12th, 2025 at 3:56 pm
I think he’s got 4 more in him, take the all-time record for total tackles from uncle RayRay
June 12th, 2025 at 7:39 pm
In my opinion Lavonte is probably one of the most underrated players ever. He never really got the credit that many others do.
June 12th, 2025 at 9:33 pm
When he does lose a step, he’ll still be 2 steps better than all other LBs. To add to his legendary numbers is the fact that he has been a “shutdown” LB on Tight ends. If this is his last dance, it will be due to the grind and physical toll.
June 12th, 2025 at 10:55 pm
If you don’t play one year too many, you’ll never really know if you played one year too few.
June 13th, 2025 at 6:39 am
“”Last year wasn’t to bad for him just those injuries to other players and having kj play next to him last year he kinda had to over compensate for other players that was the issue””
Very good point. KJ was so slow I’m sure LD had to cover more real estate than he should of had to. That won’t be an issue this year if Dennis can stay healthy.
June 13th, 2025 at 9:41 am
Nice way to put that, Lavonte hasn’t lost a step, and then bring up age, wow. That was a little bit of a low blow. The NFL needs to keep the age thing on hush like women do..