With all eyes on the 2023 season, the Pewter Report is eyeing the Bucks in 2023 and in the future. By position, 2024 and he provided a three-year outlook to figure out what the Bucks will be like in 2025, and how 2023 will impact those future teams. increase.
quarterback
running back
wide receiver
tight end
offensive line
line of defense
outside linebacker
He continues to be the inside linebacker today.
Bucs Inside Linebacker Contract
Bucks LB Devin White Photo Credit: Cliff Welch/PR
You can’t talk about the Bucks within the 2023 linebacker deal or start with anyone other than Devin White. 25 years old asked for a trade this offseason While dissatisfied with his contract status. He wants to be a $100 million linebacker, but Tampa Bay wasn’t ready to give him such a deal, so he wanted to leave.
Either way, while other teams are unlikely to turn White into a $100 million man, the Bucks have long insisted they have no intention of trading the 2019 first-round pick. Instead, they want him to play a fifth-year option in 2023. He’s going to make about $11.7 million this season as he tries to prove to the Bucks front office, or any other front office in the league, that he deserves the award. A big-money deal is due next offseason.
White’s situation has cast a shadow over Tampa Bay, putting a damper on an already tough offseason, but he had reason to celebrate his progress at the linebacker position over the course of the spring. It was, of course, team legend Labonte David returning for the year wearing red, white and pewter. Although there were some concerns that he might land elsewhere in free agency, he chose to re-sign with the Bucks on a one-year deal. David is in Tampa for 12 years, but his career is coming to an end and he will continue to look at things from an annual perspective.
David and White will start as the Bucks’ inside linebackers in 2023, but behind them is a returning combination of depth and an exciting rookie. KJ Britt is entering his third year on a rookie deal, but Ulysses Gilbert and JJ Russell will look to beat the odds and establish themselves on the out-of-camp roster.
Gilbert and Russell face long odds as the Bucks add fifth-round pick Servosia Dennis and intriguing undrafted free agent Jeremy Banks. Dennis has a standard four-year rookie deal, while Banks has an undrafted rookie deal with little security deposit. But if things go well, Tampa Bay could keep him for the next three years until he becomes a restricted free agent in 2026.
How this year will affect 2024 and 2025
Bucks ILB’s Devin White and Labonte David – Photo Credit: Cliff Welch/PR
The future of the Bucks’ linebacker position is uncertain at best. The 2023 season will decide many things, but it starts with Devin White. Leaving White this season would give him the type of deal he wanted. So could he land his next contract at Tampa Bay? Or will the front office be reluctant to pay such an amount and force him to look elsewhere? Perhaps he will even choose to enter the open market next offseason regardless of what the Bucks have to offer.
Conversely, what if 2023 brings the same for White: eye-catching playmaking ability, inconsistency, and a failure to follow through on a task faithfully? They’re going to be asking for big-money multi-year contracts no matter what. If he remains the same player he was in the first four years of his career, the Bucks would be making a pretty big bet offering him such a contract. But there’s a lot of uncertainty about the linebacker’s position going forward.
Tampa Bay will need to replace their starting inside linebacker if White makes an appearance next offseason. There are some in-house options, which we’ll discuss later. But before we look at the graph of the rest of the tier behind the starter, we have to talk about Labonte David, another of the Bucks’ starter inside linebackers.
David re-signed to a one-year deal this offseason. He said he wanted to be a career back and took quite a few pictures. team friendly deal He’ll be playing the 33-year-old season in the colors he’s worn since he was selected in the second round of the 2012 draft. he said last summer It’s hard to imagine what the future holds for 2023 and beyond, as he wanted to take things year by year. If he wants to play at the level where he has proven himself (even if he’s older) and play again in 2024. , he will likely sign an additional one-year deal with the Bucks.
But what if David chooses to retire after 12 seasons? That leaves two good linebackers to fill in for the season.
That’s why 2023 will be so important for the likes of Servosia Dennis, KJ Britt and potentially Jeremy Banks. Dennis has the prodigious ability and high football IQ needed to be an interesting replacement for one of the Bucks’ starters next season, but will he prove it on the field in 2023 and the Brits? Tampa Bay will have to invest heavily in the position in free agency and the draft next offseason.
Three-Year Outlook: Bucks Inside Linebacker
Bucks ILB Servosia Dennis – Photo Credit: Cliff Welch/PR
The inside linebacker room is being overhauled. Whether it’s next offseason or the next offseason, this group will be in transition soon. Consider the idea of White leaving next offseason and David retiring. That means there will be two new starters as linebackers in 2024. David has been a mainstay since 2012 and White has been a regular since 2019. Losing both in one offseason would be quite the change for the Bucks to deal with.
In another reality, the team may only lose one of them. If it’s White and David continues his 13th season, he’ll still need to prepare for the potential loss of the Buccaneer legend next offseason. Now, in a scenario where David retires and the Bucks give White the big new contract he wants, there could be at least some long-term stability. David will be a big loss, but at least the defense will still have a key player in their mid-twenties patrolling the middle of the defence.
White and David’s future now rests on this position group, but there are at least a few interesting talents the team could develop next year, and for another offseason. Dennis shone during his first stint in the NFL, starring in Rookie Camp, OTA, and Minicamp. He could very well be the successor to the Bucks’ current starter, and that would be a welcome addition to the group. After all, Dennis will be with us for the next four years.
Britt and Banks are a little different than Denise, and for different reasons. Britt has been around for a long time and is a rather well-known product. He knows his defense well and has experience with Todd Bowles’ system, but his athleticism and speed seem limited. Banks, on the other hand, are the opposite. He has the tools necessary to be a Tampa Bay undrafted talent, but he has to pull it all together. And that even assumes he’ll take the team out of training camp in the first place.
It’s impossible to predict who the Bucks’ starting inside linebacker tandem will consist of after 2025. Even predicting what next year’s position will look like is practically impossible. Will it be White and Denise? What about David and Denise? Dennis and Banks? For all we know now, it could even still be White and David. We just don’t know.
Three-year outlook summary
Three years from now, the Bucks’ inside linebacker room will look a lot different. David will certainly be on his way to retirement by 2025, marking the end of a great era in Buccaneer history. He’ll have his name on the Ring of Honor within the next decade, but when that happens will depend on when he hangs up his spikes. And even by 2024, no one knows where White will be. Dennis and Banks blossoming as future starters is huge for Tampa Bay, but either way, the team will need to invest in the position over the next few years to ensure it solidifies. .
