TAMPA – The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have grown accustomed to having one of their linebackers step up as arguably the best player on the field on any given Sunday during the regular season.

It was that way again during their last preseason game last Thursday night against Washington, except that the linebackers who stepped up weren’t the two who usually carry that “best-player’’ distinction.

While Lavonte David and Kwon Alexander watched from the sidelines along with 35 other Bucs regulars, Kendell Beckwith, Adarius Glanton and Cameron Lynch easily stood out as the Bucs best players during a 13-10 loss.

The trio of Beckwith, Glanton and Lynch solidified their place on the Bucs roster by combining for 21 tackles, including three for a loss, a sack, two quarterback hits and a forced fumble.

Though it came against the Redskins second-and third-stringers, the outing nevertheless confirmed for Bucs coach Dirk Koetter something that’s been rolling around inside his head for a few weeks now.

A position group that at the start of training camp was considered to be perhaps one of the weakest on the team has suddenly proved to be one of the strongest, Koetter said.

“Yeah, I thought those three guys were outstanding (against the Redskins), Koetter said. “With those three, I think we’re the deepest we’ve been at linebacker for sure.’’

NFL Network analyst Peter Shrager took it a step further. A big step further, assessing the overall talent of the Bucs linebackers and rating perhaps the “best’’ group of linebackers in the NFL.

Shrager based his assessment not so much on the depth of the group, but the two players that are clearly at the top of the depth chart and will be on the field the most, David and Alexander.

In fact, among non-skill position players throughout the league, Shrager chose Alexander as his No. 1 breakout candidate for the 2017 season, saying “I think he’s going to be a household name this year.

“Entering his third season,’’ Shrager added, “he led the NFL in (solo) tackles last year, 108; he had 145 combined, third in the NFL, and he had 21 tackles in that Sunday night game against the Cowboys last year.

“In the first preseason game this year he had five tackles on the opening drive. He’s a tackle machine and when you combine him with Lavonte David and the rookie, Kendell Beckwith out of LSU, the Buccaneers linebacking corps could be the best in the NFL this year.’’

Again, it’s remarkable how quickly opinions of this group have changed. After all, David is coming off arguably his worst season and there was little to suggest back at the start of training camp that Beckwith was going to make an early impact.

He was just eight months removed from reconstructive knee surgery and playing like it at the time. The expectations for Glanton and Lynch weren’t all that great either back then.

Glanton was coming off a third-straight NFL season in which he spent most of his time working on special teams, where he got 308 of his 332 snaps last year. Lynch, meanwhile, looked like even more of a longshot.

He was coming off an undrafted rookie season spent on the Bucs practice squad, which is where he landed after being let go by the Rams in their final roster cut-down last September.

Each has found a way to stand out since the first day of training camp, though, and now they’ll go into the season as one of the most intriguing position groups in the entire NFL.