Lavonte David Just Gave Away Secret of Buccaneers' Next Leader on Defense

Tampa Bay Buccaneers legend Lavonte David has retired from the NFL. In his absence, the Bucs are losing not just one of the most productive players in team history, but also one of the best leaders in team history who was able to be an example to young players every day on and off the football field.

Over David's 14 years with the Buccaneers, he saw many players grow and develop, and with time, became a voice in the locker room that others could rely on to help them through their young careers in the NFL.

Now that David has called it a career and with Mike Evans leaving the team to join the 49ers this offseason, the Bucs will need to find a new generation of leadership to guide this team going forward into future seasons.

There are plenty of options already on the team, such as Chris Godwin, Baker Mayfield and Tristan Wirfs on the offensive side of the ball and Vita Vea, Antoine Winfield Jr. and Yaya Diaby on the defensive side of the ball.

However, David tipped his hat to a relatively new youngster to be a strong leader for the team going forward, and that player was safety and nickleback corner — Tykee Smith.

Here’s Lavonte David on who could be the next leader for the Bucs on defense — he says that there are a lot of players but he’s particularly fond of Tykee Smith, who he calls his little brother pic.twitter.com/ZmT9aXrMy5
— River Wells (@riverhwells) March 24, 2026

"It could be a number guys, like I said, man, a lot of those guys, but I love Calijah, Tykee for sure," David said. "A lot of Yaya, some guys who played good football for us for a lot of years. But probably put my hat for sure for Tykee, man. That's like my little brother."

"I took him under my wing, kinda. He was one of those guys who was one of those young dudes who came and came straight at me and questioned me and grilled me and just watched me, kinda like seeing how I move and stuff like that. And I'm a good observer, so I kind of notice. You know what I'm saying? I notice, OK, he wants to be great at this game."

"He's definitely one of those guys. But it's numerous, it's a great number of guys," David said. "So he's one of those, like a real-life little brother. I'm sure y'all have seen on the field where he's getting into fights with people. I gotta put him away. And then he'll come tell me, man, he tried me, man. So I gotta be a big brother and step up sometimes."

Forever grateful for the 2 years we got to take the field together, you made a huge impact on my career the past 2 years Unc love ❤️💯 https://t.co/YDEJPcvs4M
— Tykee Smith (@TykSmith) March 24, 2026

Smith responded to the praise from David with a message of his own, saying how much David has meant to him and his career early on: "Forever grateful for the 2 years we got to take the field together, you made a huge impact on my career the past 2 years, Unc love," he wrote on X.

Over the course of his young career, Smith has already made a great impact playing both nickel corner and safety and has totaled 29 games played and 22 games started, 154 combined tackles, 10 tackles for loss, 20 passes deflected, three interceptions, three forced fumbles and two fumbles recovered.

Time will tell if Smith is able to grow into the locker room leader that the Bucs need him to be, but it never hurts to get an endorsement like this from a franchise legend.

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