{"id":686544,"date":"2026-01-18T14:53:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T14:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/686544\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T14:53:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T14:53:14","slug":"shaq-thompson-and-the-bucs-joebucsfan-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/686544\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaq Thompson And The Bucs – JoeBucsFan.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\tShaq Thompson And The Bucs
\nJanuary 18th, 2026 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Bucs need inside linebacker help and have for years.<\/p>\n

Devin White crumbled in his final Tampa Bay season. K.J. Britt wasn\u2019t it and moved on to be a backup in Miami. SirVocea Dennis was brutal in pass defense this season. That\u2019s three troubling seasons at inside linebacker alongside Lavonte David.<\/p>\n

And, sadly, David wasn\u2019t himself this season. He produced but a lot of his elite athleticism disappeared, perhaps all of it. Father Time ran him down. And David\u2019s leadership was not very effective in the poor Bucs defense.<\/p>\n

Joe was reminded of all this watching Bills linebacker Shaq Thompson in the playoffs. Thompson, the longtime Panthers defender, joined the Bills last offseason on a one-year, veteran-minimum kind of contract. Last week, he was a beast leading the Bills in tackles and with an interception; yesterday in Denver, Thompson made a couple of standout plays.<\/p>\n

Joe\u2019s not saying the Bucs should sign 31-year-old Thompson in free agency, or that he\u2019s a superstar. But the Bucs sure do need veteran inside linebacker help in Thompson\u2019s mold.<\/p>\n

Thompson started this season as a backup and became a starter after an injury. He stepped up.<\/p>\n

Joe would sleep better if the Bucs landed two free agent inside linebackers in free agency, whether David returns or not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shaq Thompson And The Bucs January 18th, 2026 The Bucs need inside linebacker help and have for years.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2077],"tags":[211,2599,2598,7,6,704,250,2597,2596],"class_list":{"0":"post-686544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-buccaneers","9":"tag-bucs-message-boards","10":"tag-bucs-news","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-tampa-bay","14":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","15":"tag-tampabay","16":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115916676482486821","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}