Luke Kuechly Makes The Legend Case For Lavonte David
April 4th, 2025
Lavonte David
Joe would love to the see the Bucs break from tradition and put Lavonte David in the Buccaneers Ring of Honor this year.
What a cool move it would be for a player everyone loves to say has been criminally underappreciated.
It won’t happen, but one guy who would love seeing it is retired Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly.
Kuechly was a finalist for the 2025 Pro Football Hall of Fame class but didn’t make it. He’s also a 2012 draft classmate of David.
A guest on the Bussin’ With The Boys podcast this seek, Kuechly was asked about the impressive stable of linebacker in that 2012 class. His most glowing words came for David.
“The guy that I never feel gets enough credit is Lavonte. I love Lavonte. Go look at his sacks, his forced fumbles and his fumble recoveries,” Kuechly said. “It’s unbelievable.”
Kuechly had a captive audience. Co-host Will Compton played with David at Nebraska and is always selling his former teammate. Compton talked about how David has more than 1,600 combined tackles and how historic that is.
Joe will add that David has 1,111 solo tackles, fifth-most in the modern era. That’s more than Hall of Famers Brian Urlacher, Zach Thomas, Junor Seau and Rondé Barber.
Kuechly noted how “the thing that hurts” David is how he was a 4-3 outside linebacker during his younger days and that put him in the Pro Bowl voting pool with 3-4 outside linebackers, guys that were racking up massive sack numbers and were household names.
Compton said it’s bulls** how disrespected David has been compared to Kuechly and linebacker Bobby Wagner, another member of that 2012 draft class.
April 4th, 2025 at 8:33 pm
The Glazer’s need to step up to the plate Joe !!!
April 4th, 2025 at 9:09 pm
3 awesome LB’s for sure.
April 4th, 2025 at 9:13 pm
Sounds like a job for………IRA
April 4th, 2025 at 9:38 pm
Screw that hack Kuechly – that piece of garbage was the 2013 Defensive Player of the Year in the NFL and wasn’t even the best LB in the NFC South that season. Of course he’s going to try to be nice to David, he’s got a guilty consensus and knows he was never even in the same ballpark as David.
April 4th, 2025 at 9:45 pm
That’s a bit strong Rod. Luke is known for his incredible knowledge, instincts and his physical ability – but I wouldn’t say he’s better than Lavonte either.
April 4th, 2025 at 10:01 pm
Mike Evans wasn’t even being talked about as a sure thing HoFer a couple years ago. The consistency at an high level, year in and year out, as well as the longevity of both players, is what will get them there. Kuechly has already been out of the league for 5 years and David is still putting up strong numbers, year in and out.
April 4th, 2025 at 10:03 pm
Dominik really screwed the pooch by drafting Mark Barron in 2012 with Kuechly just sitting there….
Lavonte David was one of my favorite prospects that year so I was very glad Dom drafted him in the 2nd round – but we should have had BOTH Kuechly AND David.
Barron sucked – what a waste of a top 10 draft pick.
Kuechly was a very good player – but LD54 is absolutely more deserving of HOF honors…. mainly because Kuechly’s career was short and David has now been a Stud year in and year out for 13 straight years.
April 4th, 2025 at 10:43 pm
This guy, really to me…he’s our modern day version of Derrick Brooks. Not saying playing style-wise. Just mean that he will be terribly missed once he’s gone. So glad he got a ring, and hope he gets another. Every Christmas I get a new jersey, and this year’s will definitely be David’s. Can’t believe of all the Buc’s jerseys I have that I’ve never gotten this one. Trye legend, and I believe a first year HOF’er. GO BUCS!!!
April 4th, 2025 at 11:09 pm
74 Bucs Fan – I just posted this the other day, but I’m glad that piece of garbage Luke is in the news so I have a reason to post it again…
————
2013 Luke Kuechly
156 TKLS, 2 SACKS, 10 TFL, 4 INTs, 7 PDs, 2 QB Hits, 0 FF, 0 SAFETY
vs
2013 Lavonte David
145 TKLS, 7 SACKS, 21 TFL, 5 INTs, 10 PDs, 13 QB Hits, 2 FF, 1 SAFETY
Luke – NFL Defensive MVP
David – Doesn’t even make the Pro-Bowl
April 5th, 2025 at 1:57 am
JAMES WILDER #32 RB the best Buc RB in the history of the franchise, should have been in the Ring of Honor years ago already.
Its long past overdue to put J Dub in the ROH
No disrespect to any player, but WILDER should be going in before anyone else.
April 5th, 2025 at 2:31 am
Nice that Kuechly and Wagner are blowing horns for Lavonte. Somebody needs to go medieval on the non-Ira stiffs who think they know everything. Lavonte is more deserving of HOF than many in the thing.
April 5th, 2025 at 4:37 am
Very happy to see this. Kuechley and Wagner are great players, that’s a HoF class of LBs from 2012. They know what Lavonte is. I’m less worried everyday about Lavonte getting the respect he deserves when his career is over.
The stats, a SB, his peers lifting him… not sure how he can be denied at this point but I will be so happy to solidify it with a 2nd SB in roughly 10 months.