The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, sitting at 6-2 through the first eight weeks, seemed well on their way to a fifth straight NFC South title and a sixth consecutive playoff appearance. However, they stumbled badly in the second half, going just 2–7 over their final stretch, and ended up among the 20 non-playoff teams for 2025. Veteran linebacker Lavonte David recently opened up about how quickly things slipped away, and he was rather honest about it all.

“To be honest with you, I think it’s embarrassing,” David told the Caps Off podcast. “You know what I’m saying? We had ample amount of opportunities to be able to clinch our division. We lost to the Dolphins. We lost to the Saints. We lost to Carolina at their home.”

“If we had won one of those games, we would have made the playoffs, which is crazy and insane to think about,” he added. “Like, after all that, losing all those games, we still had an opportunity to make the playoffs. “We controlled our own destiny, and we kind of, like, s–t the bed.”

During the December and early January stretch, they lost to the Saints, the Falcons, the Panthers, the Dolphins, and the rematch vs. Carolina, handing them the division crown. Add in the fact that all these losses were one-score, bad enough to ask a question about this being a coaching issue or a mentality issue.

Sure, there are reasons to justify the mediocre season, starting with injuries.

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Tristan Wirfs, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Jalen McMillan, Luke Goedeke, and Calijah Kancey all dealt with issues at various points, and at one stretch, nine of 11 offensive starters were affected. Quarterback Baker Mayfield wasn’t 100% either for long stretches.

Be that as it may, Tampa Bay was healthier during the late-season collapse than it was during the 5-1 start, which makes it rather difficult to attribute the downturn solely to health. Numbers indicate that it all came down to coaching more than anything else this season.

Offensively, the Bucs averaged 335.4 yards per game, ranking 21st, while allowing 238.2 passing yards per contest, placing 27th, and other metrics aren’t much better. Despite the concerns on both sides of the ball, the Bucs chose not to fire Todd Bowles, unlike many other teams this year.

The head coach will return for his fifth season next year, but whether David returns alongside him remains uncertain.

The future is unknown for Lavonte David

The linebacker is 36 now and has played in one of the most injury-prone positions in football for almost a decade and a half, and is still going strong. But he’ll be a free agent this offseason, and retirement will definitely be something to ponder on for him at this stage of his career. He still thinks he can keep going.

“I feel good,” David said on the same podcast. “You know, I’m healthy. I’m happy. I’m undecided [on retiring]. I’m genuinely undecided, like I don’t know. I don’t know. I still have a lot of football left in me. I know that for sure. I still love the game. I know that for sure.

He admitted that there’s only one thing that might make him consider retiring.

“The other side is I want to spend more time with my daughter,” he added. “She’s in school, so [I’ve been] taking her to school is a good feeling.”

That is as good a reason as any to retire, and if he does follow through, he will put an end to a rather illustrious career. A second-rounder in 2012, the LB joined the Bucs and spent his entire career there, making his impact known in his very first year after a 139-tackle rookie year.

Despite only having one Pro Bowl and a first-team All-Pro nod each, he has played and started 215 games for the Bucs, racking up more than 1700 tackles and 79 QB hits, and has produced 12 seasons with more than 100 tackles.

This season, he played every single game and put up 114 tackles, six quarterback hits, and 3.5 sacks, whilst being an integral part of the defense. The last few years, Lavonte David has worked on one-year deals, with 8.5 million in 2024, $10 million this past season, and if he decides he’s not done, it will likely follow the same path.