Lavonte David is really good in coverage

Yesterday, we talked about one strength of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense: stopping the play-action pass. That actually surprised me a little given the Bucs so-so pass-rush and limited safeties, but it seems that scheme and speedy linebackers compensated.

Case in point: Lavonte David’s really good in coverage.

Nice. Lavonte David’s last season has usually been seen as his weakest, but his overall performance keeps coming out looking pretty strong. I think he took a step back in run defense, but basically performed as he always does the rest of the way—which is really good.

Moreover, this remains a massive strength of the Bucs. Oftentimes teams will struggle to have their linebackers play in coverage and that can lead to massive issues, especially against play-action. Athletic tight ends and crossing receivers can wreak havoc on defenses that have bigger but slower run stuffers at linebacker. No such problem for the Bucs: they know how to stop the pass.