Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker has been one of the most productive players in the NFL since the Bucs took him in the second round of the 2012 NFL Draft. And perhaps one of the most underappreciated.
Despite a career of big plays and stuffed stat sheet, David's name hasn't appeared on many lists among the greatest of his peers nearly often enough.
Fortunately, ESPN gave David some well-deserved respect on Wednesday when they put out their All-Quarter Century team highlighting the best players over the last 25 years. They built their team like a regular NFL roster, with a 53-man roster and 17-man practice squad.
This is what ESPN had to say about David's inclusion on their roster:
No linebacker over the past 25 years has dominated with splash plays quite like David. His 415 defeats rank third among all players since 1991 (behind Lewis and Junior Seau), while his 31.9 defeats per season rank first. David also has 330 pass tackle stops (tackles after pass receptions that prevent the offense from having a successful play). Derrick Brooks (275) is the only other player since 1991 with more than 240. It's ridiculous that David has only two total Pro Bowl (2015) or first-team All-Pro (2013) selections, but we're not letting that keep him off our team. - Aaron Schatz, ESPN
David was joined by Luke Kuechly and Bobby Wagner - both of whom were also taken in David's 2012 draft class - as well as Ray Lewis and Brian Urlacher. That's the highest of company there for David.
Interestingly enough, Bucs Hall of Famer Derrick Brooks was also on the list, but as a practice squad player. That's pretty insane to put arguably the greatest outside linebacker of all time on a practice squad, but ESPN says their team is based solely on production during the 2000s. It's hard to imagine Brooks - who played for Tampa Bay from 1996-2008 - didn't do enough to still warrant inclusion based on 2000s production alone, but that's a pretty stacked group of fellow Hall of Famers and future Hall of Famers.
Very likely including David himself.
