Buccaneers Fan-Favorite LB Lavonte David Is Also Team's 'Most Underappreciated'
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Tell a Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan that linebacker Lavonte David is the most underappreciated player on the roster and they may get quite defensive.
For over a decade now Bucs fans have been holding the flag trying to get the rest of the NFL world to realize just how valuable David has been for the team since arriving in the second round of the 2012 NFL Draft.
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Despite being the most consistent and impactful defender on the team for 11 years he's made it just one Pro Bowl and has just one First-Team All-Pro selection.
It's criminal, really, but NFL.com's listing of David as Tampa Bay's most unappreciated player has nothing to do with fan love or even media support.
"First, I calculate and then rank each player's season-long contribution metric by team (win share)," Cynthia Frelund of NFL.com writes. "After making those calculations, I factor in each player's salary by position...to add some context...Then I weight players drafted in Round 2 or later who have been to no more than two Pro Bowls who aren't in the top 10 at their position."
So this is more about production versus compensation than it is how much the fans and media love or hate a specific player.
Now that we have that lined up, here's what Frelund says about David.
"In 11 NFL seasons, David has posted at least 100 tackles nine times -- the same number of times he's hit double digits in tackles for loss," Frelund says. "In my 10-season sample of computer vision, his tackle closing speed (the speed he's traveling at the time he makes a tackle) ranks in the 80th percentile. Last season, he earned PFF's second-best coverage grade among qualified linebackers, trailing only Tremaine Edmunds."
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As David enters his 12th season as arguably the most disproportionally loved Buccaneers player locally versus nationally, we've all but given up hope the entire football-watching world will ever truly understand the impact he's made in his career.
But with quarterback Tom Brady out of the way, perhaps a strong defensive performance this season will help improve that wide-angled view of this Bucs legend.
Find David Harrison on Twitter @DHarrison82
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