How Bucs' White, David will meet challenge of keeping Mahomes in check

Tom Brady may be the biggest story for Tampa Bay heading into Super Bowl LV, but it’s the duo that leads the Buccaneers’ defence that has taken the fight to opposing teams these playoffs.

Over the course of this post-season, Devin White and Lavonte David have helped make two future Hall of Famers – Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees – look mortal, and they’ll need to do something similar to Patrick Mahomes this Sunday night to come away with the Lombardi Trophy.

NFL teams dream of building a defence around an instinctive, sideline-to-sideline inside linebacker. The Super Bowl-bound Bucs have two in White and David, and their versatility has earned the respect of the defending Super Bowl MVP ahead of the matchup in Tampa.

“I think the best thing that both of those guys do, is they can defend the run just as well as they defend the pass,” Mahomes said during his press conference on Monday at Super Bowl Opening Night. “To have linebackers with that much speed and to be able to get in the run game … it’s a special group of guys.”

White and David were both selected as second-team All-Pros this season, ranking in the upper echelon of players at their position.

“Where we benefit most is just having two leaders. You always got that alpha dog in the middle,” White said. “But being able to have two alpha dogs in the middle, it’s constant leadership, it’s constant playmaking ability. We both are basically coaches out there because we know the defence throughout.”

This Bucs defence allows nothing easy around the line of scrimmage, and that’s thanks to the speed, smarts and ferocity of David and White. Their ability to get to and through opposing offensive lines helped the Bucs give up the fewest rushing yards in the NFL this season.

Their talents also result in big, game-changing plays. White has three takeaways over the last two weeks and the pair shut down the Packers late in the NFC Championship Game to secure a trip to the Super Bowl.

.@DevinWhite__40 called his shot, then called game pic.twitter.com/2XZ3FesjLT

— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) January 19, 2021

The 22-year-old White, who likes to ride horses in his free time, has been riding down quarterbacks all season. He led all inside linebackers in the NFL with nine sacks. He also has the ability to stay locked on ball carriers, using his quickness to get around bigger offensive lineman rather than face the brunt of their blocks.

It’s often difficult to quantify an inside linebacker’s impact with statistics, though. That is absolutely true of David. The nine-year NFL veteran and career Buccaneer has been largely overshadowed by contemporaries like Bobby Wagner and Luke Kuechly, who have played on perennial contenders.

This is the first season that David has even made it to the playoffs. He appreciates having a wingman lining up next to him on defence now.

“When we’re out there on the field, I’ve got to trust him and he’s got to trust me,” David said. “I always tell him, ‘You make my job easier and I make your job easier.’”

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But stopping the run and getting after the quarterback will be just part of the duo’s duties this Sunday. Whether in man or zone coverage, it will likely be David or White matched up with All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce in the pass game.

Kelce is the football world’s most reliable security blanket, and is in the midst of one of the greatest tight end seasons in league history. Kelce set the single-season record for receiving yards by a tight end, and eclipsed 100 yards receiving and scored a touchdown in each of the Chiefs’ two playoff games. He seems to possess a supernatural connection with Mahomes, routinely finding soft spots in the defence exactly when his quarterback expects him to.

Matching a linebacker up against a player of Kelce’s receiving ability does not seem fair, but such is life in the modern NFL.

“Going against a guy like Kelce, the down is never over…. He is a guy in a tight end’s body who moves like a wide receiver,” David said. “It’s going to be a tough task for whoever.”

Playing middle linebacker has been a difficult task in any era, but it has become even more challenging in today’s league. David and White could be tasked with a number of different responsibilities on any given play because of their capability, but also because of how they are deployed by their coaching staff.

Tampa Bay defensive coordinator Todd Bowles’s scheme is anything but vanilla. His defence is built on pressure and making opposing offences uncomfortable around the line of scrimmage. Having two All-Pro–calibre linebackers has unlocked that aggressive 3-4 scheme this season.

A year after his first Super Bowl title, Mahomes has shown his ability to direct the type of efficient offence that Brady is known for. But that hasn’t come at the expense of his unit’s big-play ability.

It was deep passes that doomed Tampa Bay in their first matchup with the Chiefs back in Week 12 – the last game the Bucs lost. Kansas City receiver Tyreek Hill totalled 269 yards, forcing a Bucs’ shift to leave their safeties deep. That strategy puts even more of an emphasis on the matchup with Kelce over the middle.

White shed some light on who the responsibility will fall on.

“We’re going to let Lavonte handle [Kelce],” White said. “I might catch him in zone or something. I know what types of routes he likes to run. I know all the route concepts from the formations. Where he [lines up] a lot. If he is in my zone, I know I’ll be ready.”

Super Bowls have a way of putting careers into perspective. White is in just his second year in the NFL, and is already a star on a championship-calibre team. David has languished on one of the least-successful franchises of the past decade, but finally has the chance to make his mark on the biggest stage.

“I just knew at one point in time if I’m still here, it was going to change. It was going to turn around,” David said. “Right now is the moment.”