The silver lining for the Bucs, regardless of who they brought in and who was leaving in free agency this offseason, was that they could still compete for a division title in 2023. But with the fact that there are still a lot of core pieces on Tampa Bay’s roster, Lavonte David has even more motivation to prove that last year’s team didn’t show what it was really capable of.

The Bucs announced the return of David on a one-year deal on Thursday that had an ensuing zoom press conference after. David spoke a lot about how he wants to finish his career as a Buc and how happy he is to be in the company of Bucs Ring of Honor members Ronde Barber, Derrick Brooks, and Paul Gruber, who all played 12-plus seasons with Tampa Bay as their only team.

A whole other factor in David’s return was to erase the negativity of a season that slipped away last year with an 8-10 record — and get redemption for it. This is Tampa Bay’s version of a redeem team.

“Everything was so up-and-down and it wasn’t consistent,” David said. “We’re a better football team than what we displayed. Definitely that playoff loss, losing at home in a wild card game – we basically probably played the worst game of the season. We were outmatched. We just didn’t play the way we know how to play football.

“Obviously that factors in when you’re a competitor like me. I feel like the best place for me to redeem myself was in Tampa. Kind of finishing what I’ve started. I’ve been there my whole career. I wouldn’t want to be nowhere else. They’re like a family there, so I’m excited to be back and get back to playing football.”

David Believes Bucs Can Still Win NFC South With Their Changes

Bucs LB Lavonte David – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Now, the goal once again is to win the division for the third season in a row. This one will be a little more challenging with some notable changes to the roster.

The most glaring is the retirement of quarterback Tom Brady, who turned around the franchise upon his arrival. There’s also the departure of defensive tackle Rakeem Nunez-Roches, who was a glue guy on the team.

David acknowledged losing some players to free agency but chose to find excitement in the players they have acquired, such as re-signing cornerback Jamel Dean and the opportunity for players to step into new roles. Add in everyone who’s already on the roster, and the Bucs are at least in the conversation to win a weak NFC South.

“I’m confident in what we got,” David said. “We got a majority of our locker room still there, still intact. We lost some key pieces, obviously, but the majority of our locker room is still intact and that’s something I really, really like. Obviously we added a quarterback and we added another guy on the defensive line and we lost some guys on the defensive line and added Jamel Dean back. That was a big, big thing for us I feel like, for the organization. We’re still going to be a confident group, we’ve won the division back-to-back groups and now we’re trying to see it for a third year.

“I’m sure everybody feels like they can take the division, but we feel like we got the guys in the locker room with the people we added, have that competitive fire to get us to where we need to be. We did lose a lot of key people, whoever’s going to fill in their roles is going to have some big shoes to fill, but I feel like with the locker room we have, everybody will fit in really well.”

While David may want redemption for the Bucs as a team last year, 2022 was a bounce-back season for himself. In 2021, a Lisfranc injury forced him to miss five games, which was the most time he’s missed in any season in his career. David recorded 97 tackles, failing to reach the 100-tackle mark for only the second time in his career and the most recent season since 2016.

David Regained His Form In 2023

Bucs LB Lavonte David and Bengals QB Joe Burrow – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

David bounced back in a big way last season, though, playing fully healthy in all 17 regular season games and the Wild Card Round of the playoffs. He recorded 124 tackles, with 10 tackles for loss, three sacks, one forced fumble and a fumble recovery. His tackle number is the highest it’s been since his Pro Bowl 2015 season.

Evidently, David has still got it. He shared the secret to his success of getting through the grind of the whole season this long into his career.

“Just working hand to hand with the training staff, coaching staff, managing my practice reps,” David said. “And outside of football, just taking care of my body, eating what I’m supposed to eat. Just trying to keep up, taking care of my body, getting the proper treatment when I need it, taking care of minor maintenance things that probably might nag you throughout the year. Just taking care of that, staying on top of things and that’s basically what it is.

“Getting a jump on things, whatever it may be. If you’re feeling something here and there, just get a jump on it before it becomes a big problem. I just think the main thing is just being transparent with everybody, everybody communicating with each other, making sure to take care of one another. That’s something that happened to me this year and kind of kept me fresh. It helped me finish out the season in all 17 games.”