clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Mark Dominik says Gerald McCoy, Lavonte David would play anywhere

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Mark Dominik made a list of 25 players that any team would love to have on their roster, and he named two Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Gerald McCoy and Lavonte David.

To make his list, players would have to be considered at their market value by any team in the league, they'd have to be able to play in any scheme, and they should not have any durability or character issues that would cause some teams to rule him out. Oh, and quarterbacks didn't qualify.

Lavonte David, LB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers: He might not have been a fit for every team's scheme just a few years ago, but his excellent coverage skills make him an asset in the pass-happy NFL. He is smart and productive and is as good a sideline-to-sideline run defender as there is in the league.

Gerald McCoy, DT, Tampa Bay Buccaneers: I had to check with a few of my contacts in the league to make sure I wasn't being a homer by picking both David and McCoy -- former draft picks of mine -- for this list. But I think both guys belong. McCoy has one of the best get-offs in the league among D-linemen, he's very powerful, and he's consistently disruptive against the run and the pass.

I find it interesting that he chose both of these players, given that both are fairly scheme-limited. Or rather, both McCoy and David can play in any scheme, but they're at their best and most valuable in a 4-3, one-gap scheme, especially a Tampa 2-style system. It's no coincidence that they both play for the Buccaneers, after all.

Of the two, McCoy is probably the most scheme versatile. He's obviously at his best as a three-technique, but he's powerful enough to two-gap and even play nose tackle, and disruptive enough to play five-technique in a more penetrating 3-4 defense. But I don't see every team in the NFL paying his market value -- because teams with some schemes will pay him a lot more.

Lavonte David, though, is simply too undersized to play in some schemes. To be precise: any two-gap 3-4 scheme that asks him to regularly take on offensive linemen is simply not a good fit for him: 6'1", 233 lbs. (as if) is not big enough for those schemes. That doesn't mean he literally can't play in them, but he'll be limited to sub-packages in those schemes -- which is why he fell to the bottom of the second round in the first place.

Still, these players are undoubtedly the best players on the team's roster, and two of the best players in the NFL. Hopefully, we can name Mike Evans and Jameis Winston in the same breath before long.