The NFL and the NFL Players Association have come to an agreement on how to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, and NFL training camps have opened up across the country, including in Tampa Bay. PewterReport.com offers up its analysis of each position on the Buccaneers as new quarterback Tom Brady and his teammates prepare for the 2020 season.

ILB Room

Devin White| Age: 22 | NFL Exp.: 1 year | 6-0, 237
Lavonte David | Age: 30 | NFL Exp.: 9 years | 6-1, 233
Kevin Minter | Age: 29 | NFL Exp.: 8 years | 6-0, 246
Jack Cichy | Age: 24 | NFL Exp.: 3 years | 6-2, 238
Noah Dawkins | Age: 23 | NFL Exp.: 2 years | 6-1, 235
Chapelle Russell | Age: 23 | NFL Exp.: Rookie | 6-2, 236

The Skinny

When the Bucs drafted middle linebacker Devin White with the fifth overall pick in 2019, Tampa Bay solidified a front seven that would go on to be one of the best units in the NFL.

Tampa Bay’s defense led the league last season with 359 pressures, per Pro Football Focus, held opposing teams to a league-low 73.8 rushing yards per game and kept opposing ball carriers to just 3.3 yards per carry, due in large part to the elite inside linebacker tandem of White and Lavonte David.

David was his usual self last season, flying largely under the radar despite another season’s worth of great play over the middle of the field as one of the best coverage linebackers in the NFL. David finished the season with 123 total tackles, 10 tackles for loss, seven passes defended, one sack, one interception and three forced fumbles, a trait that has become a trademark for the veteran linebacker.

Bucs LB Devin White – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

As for White, if it wasn’t for a knee injury suffered against Carolina in Week 2 that forced him to leave the game early, then missing three additional games early in the season, his name would have been firmly in the conversation for the Defensive Rookie of the Year award. White adjusted to the speed of the NFL quickly and his production mirrored that with an impressive stat sheet. In just 13 games White totaled 91 total tackles, four tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, two interceptions, three forced fumbles and a whopping four fumble recoveries, returning two of them for touchdowns.

Behind the two starting middle linebackers the Bucs have Kevin Minter, who originally signed with Tampa Bay in 2018 but remained with the Arians-led team in 2019 after originally being drafted out of LSU by the Cardinals in 2013 when Arians served as Arizona’s head coach. Minter is a serviceable backup who genuinely believes that there isn’t anything he hasn’t seen from an offense over his seven seasons in the NFL, including three seasons under defensive coordinator Todd Bowles.

Minter started two games in White’s absence last season and would be the de facto starter should one of the Bucs’ top two linebackers go down at any point, and there are far worse situations a team could be facing than temporarily plugging in Minter.

The rest of the inside linebacker room is largely a wealth of inexperience in Jack Cichy, Noah Dawkins and rookie Chapelle Russell. Cichy is the longest tenured player of the remaining three inside linebackers, but his career has been defined by injuries to this point.

Bucs LBs Lavonte David, Kevin Minter and Carl Nassib – Photo by: Mary Holt/PR

Cichy was a versatile and physical prospect coming out of Wisconsin with decent size for the position, a sixth-round pick despite a torn pectoral muscle in 2016 that forced him to miss time before a knee injury eventually kept him out of the entire 2017 season. Cichy then found himself on the injured reserve in 2018 with a torn ACL and in 2019 with an elbow injury that would require surgery.

Cichy will likely battle it out with Russell and Dawkins for a rotational spot in the Bucs’ linebacking corps.

All-in-all, if Tampa Bay’s top inside linebacker duo of Lavonte David and Devin White can remain healthy throughout the entirety of the 2020 season they may not only prove to be not only one of Tampa Bay’s strongest individual position groups once again, but one of the most fearsome linebacker corps in the NFL.

Camp Battle To Watch: Cichy vs. Russell

The top three inside linebackers on the Bucs’ roster are essentially etched in stone, barring an injury, but the bottom half of the positional depth chart looks to be fluid heading into camp. Dawkins will be an interesting name to look for as the final 53-man roster is unveiled, but it will likely be Cichy and Russell battling it out for the fourth inside linebacker spot.

As Pewter Report’s Jon Ledyard wrote after Russell was drafted, he has the size, athleticism and traits to make an NFL roster but with questions surrounding his mental processing of the game and tackling ability, this battle will be interesting.

Bucs LB Jack Cichy – Photo by: Getty Images

Despite injuries shortening each of Cichy’s first two seasons at the professional level, and multiple seasons at the college level, his time with the Bucs’ organization over the past two seasons will give Cichy the immediate advantage over Russell heading into the 2020, especially amid a pandemic that has drastically shortened the offseason transition process for a rookie looking to step up and find his role without the benefit of any past experience on record with Arians and his staff.

The Sleeper: Dawkins

Dawkins was an All-Conference standout in college at The Citadel.

By the end of his college career, Dawkins had accumulated 166 tackles, 31.5 tackles for loss, 14 sacks, two forced fumbles and two interceptions and at his Pro Day, allegedly with a tweaked hamstring, the linebacker ran a 4.41 40-yard dash. Dawkins also reportedly faster time coming the week before.

Had Dawkins been invited to the NFL Combine following the 2018 season, his 4.41 would have tied him for first among linebackers and EDGE defenders alongside first-round pick Montez Sweat.

Dawkins originally landed with the Cincinatti Bengals for five weeks in 2019 before making his way to then Bucs for the remainder of the season where he would play just five defensive snaps.

Ultimately Dawkins has the trait that you can’t teach, speed. He may shake up the inside linebacker’s room if he impresses this training camp and the Bucs decide that Cichy isn’t the answer for the fourth active linebacker spot in his third season and the rookie Russell isn’t able to make a name for himself.