Longtime Buccaneers linebacker Lavonte David may be ready to call it a career.
The Buccaneers announced that David will have a news conference at the team facility today. There was no official reason given for the news conference, but there has been speculation that David is planning to retire.
The 36-year-old David is currently a free agent, but he has played his entire 14-year career with the Buccaneers and has indicated he has no interest in playing anywhere else. Buccaneers General Manager Jason Licht has said the team will welcome David back if he wants to play this season.
The Buccaneers have signed two free agent inside linebackers, Alex Anzalone and Christian Rozeboom. Those signings seemed to indicate that they’re expecting David to retire.
Tampa Bay selected David out of Nebraska in the second round of the 2012 NFL draft. He has won a Super Bowl ring and been a first-team All-Pro during his tenure with the Bucs, and now it may be coming to an end.
Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater is back in Detroit, for his third stint with the Lions. The 13-year veteran officially signed his new contract on Monday.
“That fire to just compete and go out there and just excel and help others as well,” Bridgewater said, via the team’s official website. “I’ve always been that type of player who just wants to see others have success and I always felt like as a quarterback we play a huge role in others’ success.”
Bridgewater replaces Kyle Allen as the primary backup to Jared Goff. But Bridgewater has a separate goal than serving as an insurance policy.
“If I can just go out there and help a sixth-round wide receiver have a four- or five-year career or an undrafted free agent get four or five years out of the league from just competing with him throughout the spring, preseason, training camp, if we get reps in the regular season, that’s just something that I look forward to doing,” Bridgewater said.
A first-round pick (32nd overall) in 2014, Bridgewater spent four years with the Vikings, two with the Saints, one with the Panthers, one with the Broncos, one with the Dolphins, and one with the Lions. He left the NFL to become a high-school football coach in 2024. After leading Miami Northwestern to a state championship, he rejoined the Lions for the postseason.
Last year, Bridgewater quit coaching after being suspended for providing benefits to his players. In response, the Florida Senate unanimously passed a bill in February 2026 to allow high school coaches to spend $15,000 per year on student welfare. There have been no further updates on the bill, known generally as the Teddy Bridgewater Act. To become law, it must both pass the House of Representatives and be signed by the governor.
After leaving high-school coaching, Bridgewater played for the Buccaneers last year, serving as the backup to Baker Mayfield.
For his career, Bridgewater has appeared in 83 regular-season games with 65 starts. He suffered a serious knee injury in late August 2016, weeks before what the Vikings had hoped would be a breakout third season with the team.
The Buccaneers are signing free agent linebacker Christian Rozeboom, Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports.
Rozeboom, 29, spent last season with the Panthers.
He led the team in tackles with 122 and added two sacks, an interception, a forced fumble and a pass defensed, making 15 starts and playing 823 defensive snaps.
Rozeboom went undrafted out of South Dakota State, signing with the Rams. He spent four seasons there, appearing in 60 games with 16 starts.
In his career, Rozeboom has totaled 347 tackles, three sacks, three interceptions, 11 pass breakups and a forced fumble.
The Eagles are signing safeties Marcus Epps and J.T. Gray to one-year deals, Dianna Russini of TheAthletic.com reports.
News of the agreements comes after the team traded safety Sydney Brown to the Falcons in a swap of picks. The Eagles also lost safety Reed Blankenship, who signed with Houston as a free agent.
Epps, 30, played for the Eagles last season, seeing action on 250 defensive snaps and 119 on special teams in 12 games. He started four games in place of Drew Mukuba.
Epps also played for the Eagles from 2019-22.
He has played games for the Vikings and Raiders, too, and has totaled 315 tackles, three interceptions, 18 passes defensed and two forced fumbles in his career.
Gray, 30, played four games for the Broncos and one for the Bucs last season after seven seasons in Denver. He is a core special teams player, with 153 defensive snaps and 2,231 on special teams in 98 career games.
He made the Pro Bowl and was first-team All-Pro as a special teams player in 2021 and was second-team All-Pro in 2019 and 2024.
Earlier this week, we broke down the details of the new Mike Evans contract, which pays a base value of $42.5 million over three years, with the first year ($14.3 million) fully guaranteed.
The contract does indeed include an incentives and escalators package that puts the total possible compensation above $20 million per year.
He can get up to $6 million per year under a formula that applies to 2026, 2027, and 2028.
Evans activates a 2027 escalator in four different $1.5 million increments based on the 2026 season. Evans gets $1.5 million if the 49ers make the playoffs and if he finishes in the top 10 in receptions. He gets $1.5 million if the 49ers make the playoffs and if he finishes in the top 10 in yards. He gets $1.5 million if the 49ers make the playoffs and if he finishes in the top 10 in receiving touchdowns.
The final $1.5 million comes from 2026 playoff success. He gets $500,000 per postseason win, if he played at least 75 percent of the snaps in the regular season and the playoffs, with a maximum of $1.5 million.
The same escalators apply to 2028, based on 2027 performance. Up to $6 million more can be paid out in the form of 2028 incentives, based on the same formula.
In 12 seasons, Evans has finished in the top 10 in receptions once. He finished in the top 10 in receiving yardage three times. He finished in the top 10 in receiving touchdowns seven times.
