Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Super Bowl LV should have had Co-MVPs

For only the second time in Super Bowl history, there should have been more than one MVP for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Super Bowl history is full of quirky facts and stats, as is anything in sports or history in general. When it comes to Super Bowl MVPs, it’s fairly safe to assume that regardless of what happens in the game, the MVP of the game will be the winning quarterback. Out of the 55 Super Bowls, 31 of them had a quarterback winning the award with Tom Brady being the most recent, taking home the prize (his fifth) after guiding the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the franchise’s second Super Bowl championship.

Now here comes the quirk. There have only been ten defensive players to win Super Bowl MVP, the eighth being Dexter Jackson during the Buccaneers’ first Super Bowl season in 2002, with the first being Dallas Cowboys linebacker Chuck Howley in Super Bowl V. Howley became the first defensive player, and the first (and only) player of the losing team to win the award. However for these ten players to win Super Bowl MVP it only took nine total games. How is that possible you ask? Well, it’s because, in Super Bowl XII, defensive end Harvey Martin and defensive tackle Randy White of the Dallas Cowboys both took home Super Bowl MVP. It was the first and only time this has happened.

Super Bowl LV should have been the second time there were Co-MVPs.

Now, there are several avenues to go with this. First and foremost, this is in no way saying that Brady was undeserving of the award, far from it. His precision in the first half set the tone, and ultimately put the game out of reach, and the Buccaneers wouldn’t be where they are without him. Not only that, he completed 72% of his passes. That being said, the defense also deserved recognition.

Any time there is a dominant defensive performance, the award tends to go to the best player on the field that day since stats are harder to come by on that side of the ball. That wasn’t just any Super Bowl dominating defensive performance though. Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs offense was already being compared to the greatest offenses to ever play and came in looking borderline unstoppable. Defensive coordinator Todd Bowles‘ unit did not allow the Chiefs to get into the end zone and had Mahomes running for his life all night long. There is no shortage of options for Super Bowl MVP either when it came to the Buccaneers defense. One could look at Shaq Barrett, or Antoine Winfield Jr., who was shafted out of Defensive Rookie of the Year, so that would have been a good consolation prize. Then, of course, there are the two linebackers Lavonte David and Devin White.

David and White deserve more praise for their Super Bowl performances.

With the Brady-Mahomes Super Bowl matchup being one of the most hyped in recent memory, perhaps ever, there really wasn’t any chance the winning quarterback wasn’t taking home Super Bowl MVP. However, Lavonte David and Devin White deserved to be this millennium’s Martin White and becoming the second duo to win co-Super Bowl MVP.

This Buccaneers defense absolutely annihilated one of the most prolific offenses we’ve ever see. As far as the eye test goes, David and White were the reasons for that. It seemed like every time you looked up, one or both of them were around the ball. They jumped off the screen. We mentioned how stats are hard to come by, well, these two stud linebackers had the number as well. White lead all players with eight solo tackles and twelve total, while David was tied for second of all players with six solo tackles, which actually made up for all of his tackles. White also added in the interception late in the game that proved to be the Super Bowl dagger (shoutout Derrick Brooks).

Tom Brady is the GOAT, there is no disputing that. He also has literally every accolade one can possibly hoist upon him. The Buccaneers’ defense deserved to have the shine and have at least one of their players take home Super Bowl MVP. However like we said earlier if Brady had to have the trophy, at least let one of the defensive players share it with him. Super Bowl LV should have featured co-MVPs.