The 12-time Tampa Bay Buccaneers captain announced his retirement on Tuesday after etching his name in history books.
The longest tenured member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is calling it a career and hanging it up after 14 NFL seasons. Bucs inside linebacker Lavonte David announced his retirement on Tuesday, leaving a massive void for Tampa Bay to fill. David is a 12-time captain and was a cornerstone of their Super Bowl LV championship team in 2020. He has ranked first in the league since entering it in 2012 with 1,171 solo tackles, and his 177 career tackles for loss are good for second-best. David, alongside Pro Football Hall of Famers Ray Lewis and Brian Urlacher, is the third player in league history to notch 40-plus sacks and 35-plus takeaways. He Is also one of seven players to reach 1,700 career tackles since the league began tracking the metric in 1994, according to ESPN.
David was a second round pick out of Nebraska, and he immediately was an impact starter for the franchise. He went nine years before sniffing the postseason – the year the Buccaneers won the Super Bowl with Tom Brady. They hadn’t been to the playoffs since 2007. The team then proceeded to run the NFC South from 2021 to 2024 with four consecutive divisional titles.
Here is the full story from Bucs Roundtable writer Teri Berg on the major announcement and David's legacy.
Now, it was something David had been considering this offseason, and Bucs general manager Jason Licht gave him space to decide while ensuring they had enough inside linebackers under contract for 2026, signing Alex Anzalone and Christian Rozeboom in free agency. With Mike Evans signing with the San Francisco 49ers and David retiring, the veteran Tampa Bay players have dwindled down, with wide receiver Chris Godwin as the longest-tenured player on the roster.