Lavonte David Talks “Hard Times” And “Flashbacks”
February 18th, 2026
(A May 2019 photo)
What happened last season to cause the Bucs’ implosion?
It’s a painful subject.
How did the Bucs lose to the Saints, Panthers, Falcons and Dolphins in consecutive weeks? In December!
Joe remains in disbelief but largely has moved on.
Lavonte David has moved on, as well, but he described the pain of that stretch during his recent visit to the Caps Off podcast.
He elaborated on his quote that the Bucs “sh*t the bed” after starting 6-2.
“I’ve been through hard times like that before, but with the talented team that we had, it’s kind of like very, very difficult,” David said.
The Bucs’ captain and linebacker legend blamed “injuries, lot of plug-and-play guys, lot of people not really kind of like getting their feel and stuff like that,” among other things.
The pain was so bad, David said, it brought him back to his dark days of Bucs history after being drafted in 2012.
“It was tough. It was hard, just having flashbacks to the past [years of The Lost Decade]; I kind of thought those days was over,” David said of last season’s losing stretch. “I still think they are over, but it was just a tough, tough year, for sure.”
