{"id":276000,"date":"2026-05-19T01:50:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T01:50:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/276000\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T01:50:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T01:50:38","slug":"bucs-predicted-to-part-ways-with-starting-lb-sirvocea-dennis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/276000\/","title":{"rendered":"Bucs Predicted to Part Ways With Starting LB SirVocea Dennis"},"content":{"rendered":"

With David no longer around, there\u2019s now a clear path to the Buccaneers cutting ties with every player they had at the position in 2026 \u2014 including disappointing 16-game starter SirVocea Dennis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bleacher Report\u2019s Moe Moton<\/a> put Dennis on his list of the NFL\u2019s best players who could be cut this offseason after the former 5th-round pick\u2019s 1st year as a full-time starter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2025, SirVocea Dennis started in 16 games alongside Lavonte David, who retired, and recorded 101 tackles (10 for loss), three sacks, five pass breakups and an interception, but he allowed a 122 passer rating and three touchdowns in coverage,\u201d Moton wrote. \u201cDennis is an effective two-down defender, but he may be the worst coverage linebacker on the roster competing for a significant role if (Josiah) Trotter flashes on passing downs.\u201d<\/p>\n

SirVocea Dennis Fell Flat in 1st Season as Starter<\/p>\n

The Buccaneers had long been intrigued to see what Dennis\u2019 upside was since they selected him with the No. 153 overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft<\/a> \u2014 the same year they took his college teammate, defensive lineman Calijah Kancey<\/a>, in the 1st round.<\/p>\n

They wouldn\u2019t get a real chance to find out until this season. Dennis missed a total of 17 games due to injuries over his first 2 seasons and didn\u2019t become a full-time starter until 2025. As pointed out previously, while his stats look good on the surface, his struggles in pass coverage seemed to hurt Tampa Bay repeatedly.<\/p>\n

According to Pro Football Focus<\/a>, Dennis\u2019 49.1 overall grade puts him among the very worst inside linebackers in the\u00a0NFL<\/a> \u2014 he ranked 71st out of 87 eligible players at his position.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Bucs have a giant weakness, and his name is SirVocea Dennis,\u201d Eagles Eric wrote<\/a>\u00a0on X early in the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cPer PFF,\u00a0Sirvocea Dennis\u00a0has surrendered 438 yards in coverage, the worst number in the league by a comfortable margin,\u201d\u00a0Bucs Edition Pod\u2019s Jon Ledyard<\/a> wrote on X in October 2025. \u201cYes, he\u2019s given up more yards in coverage than any defensive back in the league. And over 100 yards more than the next closest linebacker.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buccaneers Received \u2018A+\u2019 for Free-Agent Signing<\/p>\n

The Buccaneers haven\u2019t wasted any time this offseason rebuilding their inside linebackers group \u2014 that started with a pair of free-agent signings (and possible starters) in Alex Anzalone and Christian Rozeboom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It continued when they selected Mizzou\u2019s Josiah Trotter<\/a> \u2014 the son of legendary Eagles<\/a> linebacker Jeremiah Trotter \u2014 in the 2nd round (No. 46 overall) of the 2026 NFL draft<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Buccaneers received a rare, A+ grade from The Athletic\u2019s Daniel Popper<\/a> for signing Anzalone to a\u00a02-year, $17 million contract<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Bucs get younger at the position by bringing on Anzalone, who is a superior athlete as he enters his age-32 campaign,\u201d Popper wrote. \u201cAnzalone is fast, flexible, and fluid. He is slippery when evading blockers, especially as a blitzer \u2026 Anzalone is also a versatile coverage player. The one knock on his game is a slight lack of physicality as a run defender. But this is an excellent value deal for the Bucs at a position of need.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With David no longer around, there\u2019s now a clear path to the Buccaneers cutting ties with every player…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-276000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}