Lavonte David Pressures
July 18th, 2025
Slowed down?
This is partially for the crowd that reveres the close-only-counts-in-horseshoes-and-hand-grenades sect of pass rushing.
Joe strongly maintains pressures don’t faze good quarterbacks. But not every game do the Bucs face a good quarterback. And for those stiffs, Lavonte David is still a terror.
Per NextGen Stats, no off-ball linebacker scared quarterbacks more than the Bucs linebacker icon David. He far and away had more pressures than any other off-ball linebacker.
And David had significantly more pressures than a man who people claim is David’s peer, Bobby Wagner.
The folks who claim David doesn’t belong in the Pro Football Hall of Fame are running out of excuses.
For Joe, this stat brings two schools of thought: David doesn’t seem to be slowing down when getting after the quarterback.
The second is, if one believes Father Time has slowed David a step, how many of those pressures would have been sacks if he were just five years younger?
Three-time All-Pro Lavonte David returns to the Buccaneers after generating 34 pressures last season, tied for the most among off ball linebackers. 23 of those pressures came within 2.5 seconds of the snap, leading his position.@Buccaneers | #RaiseTheFlags https://t.co/wy62pS6wMP pic.twitter.com/Nt0Pv2AgX0
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) March 10, 2025
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