Tampa Bay Buccaneers' veteran linebacker confident team can win Super Bowl

Bucs linebacker Lavonte David was all smiles when reporting to training camp entering his fourteenth season in the league,

Things are different compared to David's first eight years in the NFL. The Bucs struggled to field a consistently competitive team and the playoffs alluded him until 2020 — that year, something shifted in Tampa Bay. The arrival of Tom Brady brought different expectations than David had been accustomed to. Of course, winning the Super Bowl is the goal every year, but now it seemed like an attainable one. And it was.

For the first time in his career, David not only made the playoffs but ran the whole gauntlet, securing a Super Bowl championship on the field that, before that season, was filled with more losses than wins.

David and the Bucs have been chasing that feeling ever since, and while they have made the playoffs in each of the last four seasons, they have yet to have a shot at capturing another Super Bowl victory. For David, that's the only goal that matters. At 35 years old (and still playing at a high level), David is year-to-year with his playing career, and while he won't play for another team, securing another Super Bowl for Tampa Bay is one of the biggest reasons he returned to play for another year. Speaking to the media after opening day of training camp, David said as much, telling reporters he wouldn't be playing if he didn't think his Bucs had a shot to win it all.

“Probably not, to be honest with you,” David said. “I know what we’re capable of. I know we could get it done. I feel like we fell short last year. I feel like we would’ve had a great run at it last year. We just fell short, and that’s definitely unfortunate. But probably one of the main reasons I came back is I know what we’re capable of and I know what we can do. We’ve got the talent to do it, and we’ve got the mindset to do it. So, we’ve just got to put it all together. I always say, offense just do their thing, defense, we’ve got to take care of them. We’ve just got to do a better job defensively, and I think we’ll get to the promised land if we do that.”

The Bucs have a roster stacked with talent. The offense returns fully intact and added explosive playmakers in the offseason. The defense added strong veteran depth and added to a pass rush that struggled to get home more often than not. The defense knows they can play much better than they showed in 2024, and there is confidence among the players who expect to be talked about amongst the game's elites.

"I think the confidence," David said. "The confidence knowing that we belong. [Head] Coach [Todd Bowles] said in a team meeting yesterday, ‘We do not want to be a monster unless we want to be the elite.’ I feel like that's a mindset we have to have. The past couple of seasons, always coming down to the wire to make the playoffs, and we do not want to be in that situation anymore. We have the team to dominate, and we want to have that mentality, and when you have that mentality, it can get us there. I feel like that's what we had back in 2020, when everybody had confidence, everybody was playing a great brand of football. Also, obviously a big part of that is staying healthy too. If we stay healthy and we take care of what we need to take care of, I think we can get it done."

The Bucs are entering training camp with the right mentality, and through two days of camp, its been the defense showing out more often than not. They are big "ifs", but "if" the Bucs can play with a "we're going to dominate you" mindset and execute on the field and "if" they can stay healthy, David's return in pursuit of another Super Bowl could become a reality.