Sometimes it gets hard to break away from my constant obsession with dynamic players in the skilled positions. Primarily the WRs catch more of this Couch Rider’s attention than most anything. However, when I do take a break from such an awesome position (not the biased opinion of a former WR at all) I choose Defense. And today I choose to highlight the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ best defensive chess piece, Lavonte David.
I love a player who can move the power pigs around him in a 4-3 scheme in such a way that it literally guides the RBs straight to a special place I like to call “pound town”. This is where the MLB (or as my coach called him “bad ass”) gets to play “bully” and knock the daylights out of some unsuspecting ball carrier all because he took the right gap. Yes I said right. We are rooting for the “D” here aren’t we?
David is one of those hungry ready to knock somebody down type of players. What I love about this guy is his tenacity. If David is blocked initially on a running play, don’t blink, because the drive in this guy won’t allow him to be stuck on a block for long.
He will shed linemen with ease, find your ball-carrier and he will EAT THEIR LUNCH! Sure he could take better angles when approaching, but that reckless abandon that he has would suffer if he tried to control his tackling approach.
With 101 solo tackles (145 total) on the season in 2014, it is easy to say he is not a “gang-tackler”. He wants his own trophies and he refuses to be a guy who pads stats by jumping on the pile.
David is a guy who is not going to get the glory of a DE or OLB, but he will find a way onto your stat chart. Four forced fumbles on the year doesn’t come easy. He alone produced half of the team total forced fumbles. That surely gives ball-carriers something to thing about when coming to TB.
The 6-1, 233 pounder is in the last year of his rookie deal and according to the Pewter Report the Bucs were looking to extend David prior to training camp, however with the 430-tackles, 10-sacks, 6-interceptions and a safety in the past 3 seasons, it may be hard to sign this stellar athlete.
He may command a salary of 6-7 million dollars per year. He probably could have asked for even more if he had a better supporting cast. The unit as a whole was the 25th ranked Defense in yards allowed per game. That is definitely a stat the Bucs’ management is bringing to the table to negotiate with.
Either way I hope the guy gets paid and gets back to making heads roll for Lovie Smith. Cheers Lavonte, the Couch’s change is on you to lead the league in tackles in 2015.
Jermaine Lockett is a Writer and CEO for Couch Rider Report. Follow us on Facebook or twitter.
