Buccaneers Legend Lavonte David Makes Bold Statement on Eagles' Jalen Hurts

The Philadelphia Eagles are one of the best teams in football year in and year out, but few teams have had success against them like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have.

That includes Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts — the Buccaneers are 4-2 against Hurts including the playoffs, getting two playoff wins against him in 2021 and in 2023. Hurts has been a big point of discussion ever since a recent ESPN report suggested that there are growing frustrations around his level of play and involvement in the offense, and now, a recently retired Buccaneers legend is getting in on the discourse.

Linebacker Lavonte David knows a thing or two about quarterbacks — he played in the NFL for 14 years, after all. And when he was asked about Hurts on The Arena podcast, he gave his respect to the young quarterback while also noting that the Bucs have never been too worried about him in recent years.

Lavonte David says Buccaneers were 'never worried' about Jalen Hurts

Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Lavonte David (54) warms up before the game against the Carolina Panthers | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

"Jalen Hurts was never a guy we worried about. Our game plan was always, because they have a great offensive line, stopping the run," David said. "You had to be where you're supposed to be to stop the run, and then that may open up the passing game, but he was never asked to do so much."

.@LavonteDavid54 says his Buccaneers teams were never worried about Jalen Hurts 👀

"Jalen Hurts was never a guy we worried about. Our game plan was always their offensive line, stopping the run." pic.twitter.com/0jag4gwwTI
— The Arena: Gridiron (@ArenaGridiron) April 3, 2026

Despite that, though, David still had a lot of very good things to say about Hurts. He mentioned that Hurts will be on his seventh OC in 2026, and that frustrations may be mounting with him because of that. Alternatively, he noted that Hurts doesn't have to do much in that Eagles offense, so he feels criticism toward his on-field play is unwarranted because of that.

"They had a lot of problems with the offensive coordinator... he may have gotten frustrated with things like that. But this past season's probably the most I've really seen a lot of speculation of stuff going on as far as Jalen Hurts being a bad teammate or something like that. Devin White, he was on there for a little bit, and he never said anything negative about Jalen Hurts as a leader."

David still had plenty of good things to say about Hurts, but he was right about one thing — stopping the Eagles' run game is the key to defeating them. Hurts had just eight games (including the playoffs) where he eclipsed 30 passing attempts, and the Eagles won just two of those games. Hurts is an excellent runner and has a stellar deep ball with the receivers to go get them, but it seems like David and head coach Todd Bowles understand the key to stifling him.

The Buccaneers will not play the Eagles for the first time in a long time in 2026. But if Tampa Bay has the season it wants to have, it will almost certainly see them in the playoffs.

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