{"id":754866,"date":"2026-02-15T23:32:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T23:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/754866\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T23:32:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T23:32:16","slug":"buccaneers-lb-lavonte-david-still-thinking-about-whether-to-return-for-15th-nfl-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/754866\/","title":{"rendered":"Buccaneers LB Lavonte David &#8216;still thinking about&#8217; whether to return for 15th NFL season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While it&#8217;s been some time since David garnered accolades the best at his position typically receives, he&#8217;s remained one of the Buccaneers&#8217; most vital defensive leaders.<\/p>\n<p>David started all 17 games for Tampa Bay last season, bringing his career start total to 215. He eclipsed 100 tackles for the fourth straight season and 12th overall, with 3.5 sacks, eight tackles for loss, three passes defensed, an interception and two fumble recoveries to go with two forced fumbles.<\/p>\n<p>If David decides to return, there&#8217;s certainly a place for someone of his mettle on the Bucs as they look to pick up the pieces after shockingly snapping a five-year streak of postseason play. Tampa Bay stood at 6-2 going into its Week 9 bye, only to lose seven of nine down the stretch to miss the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We can&#8217;t do nothing but blame ourselves, the way that season went, the way it ended and everything like that,&#8221; David said. &#8220;I&#8217;m sure a lot of guys were left with a bad taste in their mouth and I know things will be different.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>If the sour taste of a late-season collapse isn&#8217;t enough to compel David to run it back once more, the history books could presumably provide some allure &#8212; even for some one as team-focused as David.<\/p>\n<p>The Buccaneers <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.buccaneers.com\/news\/lavonte-david-etches-name-franchise-history-against-panthers-week-18\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">count David tied atop the all-time franchise leaderboard in tackles<\/a> with Pro Football Hall of Famer Derrick Brooks.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s an incredible feat,&#8221; David said. &#8220;I&#8217;m extremely humbled by it. To be able to be tied with Derrick Brooks is incredible. The accolades that he has, the type of player and type of person that he is, I don&#8217;t take that for granted.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Though it would be fitting for two team legends to share the record should David ultimately hang up the cleats, he&#8217;d only need one more tackle to stand alone.<\/p>\n<p>Redemption from 2025 and passing a franchise giant &#8212; such hypotheticals must wait for now.<\/p>\n<p>Only one week beyond Super Bowl LX, David has plenty of time still to consider his options.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While it&#8217;s been some time since David garnered accolades the best at his position typically receives, he&#8217;s remained&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":754867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2077],"tags":[1227,211,7,9195,88,6,609,704,250,2597,2596],"class_list":{"0":"post-754866","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-around-the-nfl","9":"tag-buccaneers","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-lavonte-david","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-no-minute","15":"tag-tampa-bay","16":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","17":"tag-tampabay","18":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754866","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=754866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}