YaYa Diaby Has A Friend In Peter Schrager
December 27th, 2023
Blowing up.
If the Bucs somehow would have landed edge rusher Will Anderson or defensive tackle Jalen Carter in the draft, in addition to Calijah Kancey, who the Bucs did draft in the first round, fans would be in ecstasy.
Well, the Bucs may have landed a better player than Anderson or Carter.
Anderson and Carter, who played for high-profile SEC schools, are good players and might be absolute studs. Meanwhile, the Bucs waited until the third round to pick YaYa Diaby out of Louisville, not exactly Alabama or Georgia. And in just five starts, Diaby leads the Bucs with 6.5 sacks.
That also leads all NFL rookies in sacks.
Imagine if he gets to start next year from Week 1?
On Sunday, Diaby wasn’t just getting sacks. He made an outstanding play to blow up a reverse for a tackle for loss. In addition to his 1.5 sacks Sunday against Jacksonville and two tackles for loss, Diaby had a quarterback hit, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.
“Good Morning Football” co-host and closet Bucs fan Peter Schrager said Diaby was “one of the best players in all of football” this past weekend.
Merry Christmas indeed.
And Schrager said if the Bucs send him a Diaby jersey, he will wear it on air for a full show this week.
Last week Schrager deemed Bucs tight end Ko Kieft his new favorite player and wore his jersey for a full show, seen on NFL Network weekday mornings.
Diaby is making such an impact you have to wonder why in the world did the Bucs wait so long to get him on the field more?
You can see Schrager talk about Diaby in the NFL Network video below beginning at the 1:03 mark.
Here are the 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 rookie performances of Week 16: @PSchrags' Fabulous Five 🖐️
5: @BrianBB_1 @Lions
4: @greatyaya4 @Buccaneers
3: @Bijan5Robinson @AtlantaFalcons pic.twitter.com/6L8ZdhYUxb— Good Morning Football (@gmfb) December 26, 2023
December 27th, 2023 at 7:35 am
Should be RDPOY but won’t be. It’ll go to someone on SF or NY.
December 27th, 2023 at 7:36 am
Let’s have patience here. We have 2 defense studs in the making from this years draft.
December 27th, 2023 at 7:48 am
Kancey and Diaby makes up for the Licht’s draft flops, Logan Hall and JTS
December 27th, 2023 at 7:58 am
Bout to order my creamsicle Ya Ya jersey for Bucs at Panthers. Bank of America stadium is a four hour drive south.
December 27th, 2023 at 8:18 am
Bowles always waits to long to get the best player on the field. Folks were asking JTS to be benched last year.
December 27th, 2023 at 8:32 am
Yaya is a great story and I hope he continues to develop. If the Bucs pair him with Verse, or Sawyer from next years draft and the Bucs pass rush could become dangerous!
December 27th, 2023 at 8:46 am
This just proves that the NFL draft is just a crap shoot and having a high pick really doesn’t matter as much if you have a good scouting department.
December 27th, 2023 at 8:58 am
This defense is short four players: 1x OLB/DE, 1x DL, 1x MLB, 1x S
I expect Licht to grab those positions (plus a Center) in the draft. If he nails the picks, the Bucs are going to be a problem for a long time.
December 27th, 2023 at 9:27 am
Lack of early playing time is one reason I voted “little confidence: in the Bowles poll.
The fact it took back-against-the-wall fear to get Bowles to decide to do something different.
A sharp coach would have gotten Diaby on the field quicker.
I suspect that Bowles would be tardy getting Kancey on the field sooner, too.
December 27th, 2023 at 9:40 am
the real question is, do you think the bucs get shrages a yaya jersey to rock on the air or nah ?
or do they send him a jts by mistake
December 27th, 2023 at 9:48 am
AlabamaBucsFan… what are you talking about?? Jason Licht has had fantastic!!
Arguably top three GM in the game! Hence the article!!
December 27th, 2023 at 9:57 am
If you remember that draft room, Bruce Arians was the one who wanted JTS the most. That’s one reason that I kept expecting him to take off. Bowles deserves confidence for finally seeing that Yaya learned the system well enough to play. GO BUCS
December 27th, 2023 at 10:02 am
Worried about the rat poison here
December 27th, 2023 at 10:31 am
Simply put – El Diablo rules!
December 27th, 2023 at 10:43 am
Creamsicle colors and Bucco Bruce look more Floridian than pewter and red. I get why the team changed them, cos I was a fan through those years. It was rough.
December 27th, 2023 at 11:05 am
Logan hall is a will golston 2.0 dude is having a solid season. I get that he was drafted high so he should get the splash plays that go with the draft position but hall is turning out to be a solid players
December 27th, 2023 at 11:08 am
orlbucfan Says:Creamsicle colors and Bucco Bruce look more Floridian than pewter and red. I get why the team changed them, cos I was a fan through those years. It was rough.
I agree 100%. I think (hope) the Glazers have learned their lessons. The future for this team is now brighter than ever.
December 27th, 2023 at 11:11 am
This is what good teams do. They draft starters in the first three rounds.
December 27th, 2023 at 11:52 am
Ya Ya is a game wrecker already with unlimited upside. It is amazing that we got such a good player in the third round. Thank you Jesus and Jason
December 27th, 2023 at 11:53 am
Colin when it happens we jump for joy as it’s not real
Common
December 27th, 2023 at 12:08 pm
I ageee Hall had played well too he was never going to be a splash guy he is playing the sound Gholston role
December 27th, 2023 at 1:14 pm
Sly pirate
You forgot corners.. lots of corners.
December 27th, 2023 at 2:52 pm
Why did they wait so long? Because he wasn’t ready. He’s still a very limited player with few, if any, pass rush moves beyond a bull rush. Also, part of the responsibility of an edge defender is dropping into coverage. He wasn’t ready, plain and simple. He still has a lot to learn and work on to continue progressing
December 27th, 2023 at 3:47 pm
To be fair to Will Anderson he is currently 3rd in both pass rush and run stop win rate with a relatively high double team rate, he’s effectively a top 5 edge rusher in his rookie year.
…that being said, go YaYa!
December 27th, 2023 at 4:20 pm
Todd Bowles – his blitz schemes don’t apply pressure but at least he runs zone bust pass coverage schemes enable opposing receivers to run wide open.
December 27th, 2023 at 7:19 pm
Logan Hall is basically in his rookie year. I think he’s going to end up being a long time solid DT like Gholston. Should become a better pass rusher though. People are going to get on him because he’s not going to be the dominant interior force, but I think he’s there to stay for quite a while, and should be really good.
YAYA and Kancey are going to get the headlines (and hopefully another edge rusher that they draft soon because JTS needs to go).
Those guys with Winfield and the rookie CB and Zion… Future D looks promising. They need to find another ILB.
December 28th, 2023 at 2:12 am
Agreed Joe. Send him a jersey Joe!
Starting to like Schrager. LOL
“Last week Schrager deemed Bucs tight end Ko Kieft his new favorite player and wore his jersey for a full show, seen on NFL Network weekday mornings.”
Finally someone besides myself giving Kieft some love for his TD catch!
Go Bucs!
December 28th, 2023 at 2:16 am
BTW Joe you guys should have been all over Kieft on that one.
Go Bucs!
December 28th, 2023 at 2:16 am
And Durham this week.
Go Bucs!
December 28th, 2023 at 2:17 am
The problem with JTS is he only played in 8 games his whole college career. Our scouting office along with Jason licht made a huge mistake in evaluating him. His rookie year he just used speed to get his sacks and that wasn’t even impressive since he only got 4, instead of bulking up and getting stronger he got ripped up and really didn’t gain enough strength so he gets manhandled on the line. I don’t think he makes any NFL team once the Bucs release him.