Lavonte David has been seen by many as the Buccaneer's best defensive building block as well as one of the best outside linebackers in the NFL.
The Nebraska alum has tallied a crazy amount of stats while playing on a team that seems to build constantly rebuilding. In three seasons with the Buc's David has 10 sacks, 473 total tackles, 6 interceptions, and 6 forced fumbles. David is also the Buc's leading tackler and probably their best defensive player. The better David plays the harder it is going to be to find some common ground contractually. The Buc's and David to this point have not found any common ground and are still immensely far apart, so much so that it is even being speculated these talks will continue long into training camp.
Jason Licht Tampa Bay's general manager stated "The one thing I don't want lost is that we do realize Lavonte is one of the elite (outside) linebackers in the league, and he's a cornerstone player and he should be rewarded for his outstanding play and what he means to this organization. We just need to find common ground."
These types of contract disputes are fairly common and are often a lot more ferocious than this. It should be noted that David has never made a pro bowl but I hardly think that excuse will fly for him to take a pay cut. Regardless the highest paid outside linebacker in recent NFL history was Patrick Willis and at the time he only signed a $50 million guaranteed contract, defenders are negotiating for a lot more these days and with the extension of Gerald McCoy which netted him close to $100 million dollars it will be interesting to see how the Buccaneers handle this.
