{"id":801697,"date":"2026-03-09T05:31:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T05:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/801697\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T05:31:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T05:31:12","slug":"leo-chenal-and-the-bucs-joebucsfan-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/801697\/","title":{"rendered":"Leo Chenal And The Bucs – JoeBucsFan.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\tLeo Chenal And The Bucs
\nMarch 8th, 2026 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It\u2019s become rather obvious to anyone paying attention that Lavonte David is strongly considering returning to the Bucs for a 15th season in 2026.<\/p>\n

The legendary Bucs linebacker is likely feeling like a new man following postseason knee surgery.<\/a> Also, David\u2019s last public interview included him saying, \u201cI still got a lot of football left in me.<\/a>\u201c<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the reality of no retirement announcement from David while free agency kicks off tomorrow at noon.<\/p>\n

Of course, David may wince in pain when he sees how much the Bucs offer him. David, 36, earned $9 million last year and could be looking at half of that following a rough season.<\/p>\n

But suppose David does return at a reduced salary and reduced snaps? That should lead the Bucs to look for a versatile inside linebacker in free agency that is OK with a potential rotational role. Leo Chenal, who is expected to break free from the Chiefs, could be that guy.<\/p>\n

Chenal, 25, was a late-third-round pick of the Chiefs in 2022. He\u2019s known for being an athletic and physical tackler, and a guy comfortable running and hitting and blitzing effectively. Chenal has been durable through his career but has never played more than 450 snaps in a season. That\u2019s part-time work. For perspective, David logged 1,023 snaps last season.<\/p>\n

If David is back, Joe would applaud adding a mid-priced guy like Chenal and drafting an inside linebacker, with SirVocea Dennis taking his rightful place on special teams and in a spot duty as the No. 4 inside linebacker.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leo Chenal And The Bucs March 8th, 2026 It\u2019s become rather obvious to anyone paying attention that Lavonte…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[2599,2598,7,250],"class_list":{"0":"post-801697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-bucs-message-boards","9":"tag-bucs-news","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116197582511437310","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801697","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=801697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}