After appearing as though he might leave in free agency, Lavonte David has decided to re-sign and is returning to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Well, well, well, how the turn tables have turned. Lavonte David is coming back to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and all is once again feeling right in the world.
Just when it appeared this offseason was going to be a trek through darkness, the Buccaneers front office has fired up a flood light to show fans the way forward — and it’s one that will involve Lavonte David.
According to Tom Pelissero from NFL Network, the Bucs and David agreed to a deal on Wednesday that will keep him in Tampa Bay.
This comes after it looked like David might be leaving in free agency, something that seemed so certain that we wrote a very sad post about it the other day. Whether that reversed course thanks to the almighty power of The Jinx, or Jason Licht worked his magic in the front office, who can say?
All that can be said is that David is coming back for his 12th season with the Buccaneers and fans have been given yet another sign that the team isn’t going to settle for tanking anytime soon.
A deal with the Bucs comes on the heels of reports that the Buffalo Bills might make a run at bringing David in to bolster its defense.
David made it clear, though, that he would love to spend his entire career with the Buccaneers like Ronde Barber did. The decision to re-sign takes him one step closer to that, and likely ended up being a bigger trump card than some might have expected.
Lavonte David re-signing is another huge win for Buccaneers offseason
It’s been a decidedly not terrible offseason for the Buccaneers, which is perhaps one of the biggest plot twists this side of watching the Super Bowl run in 2020. Everything pointed toward the Bucs sinking into the abyss of the post-Tom Brady era with a $55 million cap situation to sort out and tough decisions that led to the departure of guys like Leonard Fournette and Cameron Brate.
Just when things looked the darkest, though, the dawn started to rise.
Tampa Bay came out of nowhere and re-signed Jamel Dean, someone who was expected to leave even more than David was. That move was chased by adding Baker Mayfield earlier on Wednesday before bringing David back on a very affordable deal.
A lot of work still needs to be done as the team emerges from the Tom Brady Years, but things are looking up in ways nobody was expecting — and it absolutely rules.