TAMPA BAY, Fla. — K.J. Britt is an old movie buff. Some are silent films. No dialogue needed. A few decades ago, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker would have been just fine with a grainy image and the whirring sound of a projector.

That’s because he spends a lot of time studying the old-school greats.

“Like Mike Singletary says, ‘Every play is trying to tell you something, you’ve just got to see it,’ ” Britt said of the 1985 Bears’ Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker.

“So just watching him. Watching linebackers like (Larry) Foote, Lavonte (David). Everybody knows what’s going on. Everybody knows what you’re going to get and that’s going to put you a step faster. Just knowing what’s going on helped put me in position to make plays.”

Britt goes deep into the archives to watch highlights of linebackers who haven’t played in the NFL since before the turn of the century.

“Harry Carson. Willie Lanier. Ray (Lewis),” said Britt, rattling of the stars of his football films. “Takeo (Spikes). All the great (middle) linebackers. Middle linebackers that came before me. That came before, years and years. You can just watch as you go back, it’s still the same game. It’s a team game. It ain’t golf. It’s a team game.

“Watching how those guys demanded a lot from their teammates. Sam Mills. The Dome Patrol. All those good linebackers. Rickey Jackson. Just watching all those teams and how they were good and what they did. The performances were still the same.”

Everything about Britt tells you he’s part linebacker, part throwbacker.

High among the reasons why the Bucs did not offer a contract extension to Pro Bowl linebacker Devin White, the team’s fifth overall pick in 2019, was the improved play of Britt.

White’s decreased productivity had something to do with it, as well, which is why he signed a one-year, $4 million contract with the Eagles as an unrestricted free agent.

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