SirVocea Dennis Said There Is A Time And A Place To Talk Ball With Lavonte David
June 9th, 2025
Source of knowledge for SirVocea Dennis.
Lavonte David isn’t just one of the best players in Bucs history, he’s one of the better players to ever snap on a chin strap.
Yeah, Joe typed that.
So as David readies himself for his 14th season, it’s only natural that a smart, young starting linebacker playing alongside him would want to pick the veteran’s brain.
As SirVocea Dennis said last week, David has seen it all. So Dennis admits he likes to lean on David to absorb wisdom.
One thing Dennis is learning is it may be better to hit up David with football questions when he’s at One Buc Palace and maybe limit his phone calls to David on his downtime.
It’s not that David isn’t helpful, far from it, Dennis said. Apparently, David likes to separate work from his personal life.
“I sometimes I call him at night just to ask him a couple questions, you know what I mean?” Dennis said about tapping into David’s knowledge. “And obviously, 14 years in, you’re like, ‘All right, dude. I’ve seen too much. I played too much.’ And I know he’s tired of me now.
“But you know sometimes I just want to talk ball with him. I know sometimes he’s just like, ‘Alright, leave that at work.’
“But he enjoys [being a part-time coach].”
David isn’t being testy with Dennis, the third-year linebacker out of Pitt said. It’s just that Dennis has learned there’s a time for work and a time for play.
Joe asked Dennis if David is willing to give Dennis his time. Dennis said there’s no doubt David — at One Buc Palace — is there to help. “One hundred percent!” Dennis said.
So Dennis is learning to keep work at work when it comes to tapping David’s experience.
June 9th, 2025 at 4:15 am
Like Shrek and Donkey.
June 9th, 2025 at 5:29 am
Umm…Okay…
Go Bucs!
June 9th, 2025 at 8:49 am
Warming up to SirVocea more & more. His ‘body of work’ is very thin, and thus his NFL experience is very limited. What’s made me hesitant to really push for him to be our starting MLB has been his (1) availability, and (2) pass coverage. Hopefully the availability issue is now fixed with his shoulder operation.
SVD’s pass coverage skills may be very good like many have touted, but his limited numbers in 205 def snaps over 17 games in 2 years don’t support that IMO. SVD has allowed 14 completions in 17 targets for a 82.4% career pass completion rate allowed. It’s a miniscule ‘body of work’ obviously, AND he may have been playing hurt (don’t know), but 82.4% doesn’t scream ‘Don’t even think about throwing over the middle’.
In all fairness though, LVD allowed 84.6% pass completions last year, the highest of his career it looks like. Thus the defensive schemes MAY have had a lot to do with what was happening over the middle. For instance, LVD blitzed 80 times last year (the most of his career), and was probably ‘threatening blitz’ on many others (putting him MAYBE a step behind?). HOPEFULLY LVD doesn’t have to blitz nearly that much this season.
Other thing I noticed about SVD though is his tackle rate. He’s got 35 tackles (25 solo) over his 205 def snaps (2 years). Tells me that he’s ‘around the ball’ a BUNCH (1 tackle every 6 def snaps is excellent). And his 7.9% Missed Tackle Rate is also very respectable (same as LVD’s over his career). Just need him to stay healthy (along with a lot of other Bucs).