One of the biggest decisions facing the Bucs this offseason is which players the team will retain and which players they will move on from. Assuming he decides not to retire, Lavonte David is someone the Bucs will most likely look to bring back with a new contract extension.

David, who has spent his entire 11-year career with Tampa Bay, is currently third in franchise history in solo tackles (949), second in assisted tackles (397), first in tackles for loss (143), sixth in passes defended (59) and first in forced fumbles (27). He has been selected to a Pro Bowl, has an All-Pro nod and is generally considered one of the top five linebackers of the past 10 years.

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

David just finished up his age-32 season and age could be a concern on a new contract. However, despite a lack of “splash plays,” his level of play is still very high. He is still one of the best coverage linebackers in the league and his ability to play so well in that role frees up fellow linebacker Devin White to play downhill more and with a greater level of reckless abandon.

He posted 124 tackles, 10 for a loss, three sacks, five passes defensed, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. He complemented those counting stats with an 84.1 overall grade from Pro Football Focus.

All of this means David has a good case to improve the average annual value of his expiring two-year, $25 million contract. While David’s age may be a reason for a reduction in salary, just last year Bobby Wagner signed a five-year, $50 million contract with the Rams despite coming off of an arguably worse (though still very good) season.

With the top end of linebacker contracts rising at a rapid rate (White is set to earn a nine-figure contract next off-season), David should be able to bump up his salary if he chooses to continue to play. He could opt to follow in the footsteps of hopefully future hall-of-famer Ronde Barber.

Toward the end of Barber’s career with the Bucs, he played on a series of one-year deals that allowed him to reconsider each off-season whether he wanted to continue to play, while he gave the Bucs a similar option to re-up with him. This deal would absorb some of the dead cap hit that is set to hit the Bucs’ 2023 season and push more of it into future years.

A Hypothetical Re-Signing Between David And The Bucs

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

A hypothetical one-year pact between the Bucs and David might be in the neighborhood of $13.5 million. It would include a prorated bonus (most likely a roster bonus that would execute just a few days after the execution of the contract) in the amount of $9 million to be spread out over three years on the salary cap. This would be over the course of 2023 and two void years (2024 and 2025).

A potential deal for David could look something like this:

2023: $4.5 million base salary, $2,285,000 carryover prorated bonus from 2020 contract, $3 million prorated bonus

The total would be a $9,785,000 cap hit for 2023, which would be only a $2,930,000 increase on the dead cap hit the Bucs were set to incur on David’s previous contract. Beyond that, David would create a dead cap hit of $10,570,000 in 2024. That dead cap hit would be the combination of the $6 million of the remainder of the roster bonus from this contract along with the remaining $4,570,000 in prorated bonus from his current expiring deal.

This contract would fairly value David within a linebacker market that is quickly expanding while keeping him with the Bucs with the potential to finish his career in Tampa Bay.