Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Veterans to trade away

LB Lavonte David

This one is very hard. This trade would likely receive a similar reaction to the team letting Gerald McCoy go, but it is a trade that would benefit the Buccaneers in the end.

The former Pro Bowler and First-team All-Pro is the heart and life blood of this defense and team, but in the end moving on from David will be a solution that helps move the team forward. The Buccaneers are getting younger on both sides of the ball and resigning an expensive 29 year old player will not stick to the current front office playbook.

Lavonte David is an incredibly talented player and one of the more underrated inside linebackers in the league. He has been one of the few constants on the team for the Bucs for the duration of his time in Tampa which will make parting with him all the more difficult.

The problem is the fact that David carries a hefty price tag and inside linebacker is one of the easiest positions to replace in the league. While the Bucs took Devin White in the draft at fifth overall, several other inside linebackers drafted later such as Devin Bush and Blake Cashman have both outperformed White up until this point and show that the Bucs shouldn’t struggle too much in finding a replacement.

Even if the Bucs were not to trade David it seems entirely likely that they would let him walk in free agency. This would be a massive loss for the Bucs as they would receive little to no compensation for an incredibly talented player. If the Buccaneers head into a rebuild, a veteran nearing the age of 30 is unfortunately not going to be in the plans.

The Bucs could trade David now to a team that is in contention but short at inside linebacker and receive a bump in cap space for the next season and a pick that could be used to draft a cheaper and younger alternative. The Bucs will certainly miss David, but to wait and do nothing at all would cause them to miss out on making anything out of the difficult situation.