Players from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers flying under the radar is nothing new. And while many of those players have gotten more exposure in the wake of the Tom Brady era in Tampa Bay, there are two Bucs players who anonymous players around the league still may believe don’t get enough credit.
The Athletic anonymously polls NFL players every year for a number of questions, and this year, they asked NFL players who the most underrated player in the NFL was. Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgens led votes with 5.4% of 76 players polled, but two Bucs players received votes themselves — Bucs wideout Mike Evans with 2.7% of the vote and linebacker Lavonte David with one vote.
While it’s entirely possible that the players voting for Evans and David were Bucs players, few would likely argue that they aren’t underrated. Evans has recently gotten more acclaim for his consecutive streak of 1,000-yard seasons but was often not mentioned among the league’s best wideouts by pundits and experts. Lavonte David has been one of the NFL’s best linebackers during his career, particularly excelling in coverage, but only has one first-team All-Pro and two second-team All-Pros to show for it in his 10 year career.
David and Evans are both free agents for the Bucs next year and, assuming they do not retire, Tampa Bay will have to decide on whether or not to bring the two back at their age and with the money they are certain to command.
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