One big part of making trades in the NFL is the cold-blooded reality of it.
The more you can essentially rip other teams off, the better you probably are at your job.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht is very good at his job, and Bleacher Report’s Moe Moton proposed a trade that could help the Bucs dump a rapidly diminishing asset in exchange for some value.
In Moton’s trade pitch, 16-game starter and inside linebacker SirVocea Dennis gets shipped to the New York Jets in exchange for a Day 3 pick in the 2027 draft.
In this case, getting a 5th- or 6th-round pick in exchange for Dennis would probably be a win for the Buccaneers.
“At 37, Demario Davis is a starting-caliber linebacker on a two-year deal,” Moton wrote on July 14. “The Jets must consider the future at the position — someone to pair alongside Jamien Sherwood. Gang Green may be able to bring in Dennis for a late-round pick. He could be the odd man out after the Buccaneers overhauled their linebacker group. As a first-time, full-time starter last year, he logged 101 tackles (10 for loss) and three sacks. The 26-year-old needs to sharpen his coverage technique, but he still has some upside.”
Bucs Looking for Clean Slate at Off-Ball Linebacker
There is nothing to indicate the Buccaneers don’t want a completely clean slate at inside linebacker in 2026 — something made crystal-clear by the franchise since the retirement of franchise legend Lavonte David in March.
Since David decided to retire after 14 seasons, the Buccaneers not only went out and signed a pair of starters at inside linebacker in Alex Anzalone and Christian Rozeboom, but also drafted another inside linebacker in the 2nd round with Missouri’s Josiah Trotter.
All of those things point to the Buccaneers moving on from Dennis, who finally overcame injury issues that had dogged him through his 1st 2 seasons to start 16 games in 2025, during which his struggles in pass coverage became a problem for the entire defense.
Bucs Made 2 Big-Time Moves in Offseason
The Buccaneers received a rare, A+ grade from The Athletic’s Daniel Popper for signing Anzalone to a 2-year, $17 million contract.
“Longtime Bucs off-ball linebacker Lavonte David is a free agent, and he clearly took a step back last season,” Popper wrote. “David turned 36 in January. The Bucs get younger at the position by bringing on Anzalone, who is a superior athlete as he enters his age-32 campaign. Anzalone is fast, flexible, and fluid. He is slippery when evading blockers, especially as a blitzer … 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.”
Trotter could very well be the linebacker of the future for the Buccaneers, if he’s not the linebacker of the present in 2026. There’s a chance he could displace Rozeboom in the starting lineup sooner rather than later.
“At 6-foot-2 and 237 pounds, Trotter is a downhill, instinctive player who rarely misses tackles and is a very physical run defender,” ESPN’s Jenna Laine wrote in April. ” … Trotter has only two years of experience playing college football (he just turned 21 two weeks ago), and he suffered a knee injury that required surgery at the end of 2025. He also missed his freshman season at West Virginia in 2023 with a torn ACL.”
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