Still Marveling At Vita Vea’s Strength
April 4th, 2024
Looking for areas of improvement on the Bucs? Joe will include production from No. 50 in his seventh Tampa Bay season.
Vita Vea is 29 years old and guys with massive bodies absorbing endless double teams rarely hold up much beyond that. This has to be, should be and could be a breakout year for Vea with young, explosive defensive tackle Calijah Kancey drawing some attention away from him.
Vea missed a couple of 2023 games with injuries and tailed off later in the season after a strong start. He was little factor against the Lions in the playoffs.
Still, Vea has all the skills and power he needs to change games.
Joe enjoyed hearing Titans quarterback Will Levis talk recently about his “welcome to the NFL moment,” which came against the Bucs.
“When Vita Vea pulled me to the ground with one arm and slammed me on third down. I’ve never seen somebody move another human being that easily, with that little effort,” Levis told The Ones podcast.
Video of the sack is below. It’s a reminder to Joe that Vea has the talent to take over games, be versatile and return to his once Pro Bowl form.
Absolute masterclass by Vita Vea:
– Dillard false starts
– Vea gets his helmet ripped off with hands to the face
– Will Levis still gets sacked for a 9yd loss pic.twitter.com/qYVC7rqb6R— Josh Hill (@jdavhill) November 12, 2023
April 4th, 2024 at 11:44 am
The Manimal himself
April 4th, 2024 at 11:49 am
He provides a massive impact when healthy. I wonder how healthy he has been because at times over the last couple years he looks like he loses his impact. I hope he decides to lose 20 lbs (maybe 20 on of off him doesnt make much difference) and is full strength. Kancey needs him.
April 4th, 2024 at 11:55 am
Tevita Tuliʻakiʻono Tuipulotu Mosese Vaʻhae Fehoko Faletau Vea is a beast! My son in law is also Tongan almost 40 years old and benches about 475 pounds. Can’t teach it!
April 4th, 2024 at 11:59 am
Love me some VV
.
It does seem like the DL lost their leadership AND energy when Suh and Jpp left.
Need new leaders… or just sack machine so there is some competition for snacks.
right now it’s like the girls section in kinder garden
jose gets a sack, pollie also earned one with her illegal takedown at t ball,,,and we can;t forget little desi here. She gets two-look she has flowers on her shirt AND she tripped little dylan
aint she precious!
April 4th, 2024 at 12:06 pm
Bowels gets the least out of a lot of his players. Vita is one of them. (Diva White comes to mind, Davis, Dean also). With some proper coaching and motivation, dude has the talent to be first ballot HOF. But not for soft Todd.
April 4th, 2024 at 12:06 pm
Vea had a quiet season imo
April 4th, 2024 at 12:18 pm
Wow Lt. Dan! Benches 475?!
Your daughter is well protected!
April 4th, 2024 at 12:19 pm
Vea is a beast and the reason why our defense is so good at stopping the run. He gets double teamed every game and still is a factor, can’t teach his athleticism
April 4th, 2024 at 12:29 pm
I am still marveling at how we pay a guy top money to play a little over 50% of the snaps, a part time player who sits out on the most important drives of the game.
I am so tired of hearing all the excuses for this guy. Great player when he is in the game. But you have to be in the game.
Not a FAN!
April 4th, 2024 at 12:34 pm
Get someone like a Suh-like player next to him at DE and you got a very good combo. I would not mind if they draft a monster DT/DE at 26. Players like Johnny Newton and Byron Murphy II would do it.
April 4th, 2024 at 12:44 pm
Bucs’ best edge rush came from tackles, Vea and Kancey.
April 4th, 2024 at 12:51 pm
Hasn’t been the same since Suh left, IMO.
Hopefully that changes this year with Kancey coming into his own in his 2nd season.
Still need someone on the EDGE!!!!!!!!!
April 4th, 2024 at 12:54 pm
He’s usually pretty good when he’s in there.
April 4th, 2024 at 1:04 pm
@Dave Pear – that she is. Thank god he is a super nice dude too. BTW – love the moniker. I remember Dave Pear.
April 4th, 2024 at 1:41 pm
Well there is your Edge Guy Joe.
At least on this play he was the Edge based on where he lined up.
April 4th, 2024 at 2:35 pm
Yeah, w/o SUH, Vea has had no help on the inside. The edge wasn’t existent last year and Vea was left to try to do everything by himself.
April 4th, 2024 at 2:35 pm
Vita still has room for improvement…mainly in the luck and health department.
He can have a good 5 or 6 more great years left.
Just go to the prototype, perhaps the GOAT of NT’s, another Tongan Haloti Ngata.
Ngata played at a very high level for 11 seasons before tapering off due to injuries his final two years. His solo tackles numbers are freaking insane! 3 seasons he was over 40…close to 50 SOLO tackles. Vita’s best season so far is 21 and 22 solos but capped by last year’s 28.
Vita still has a lot of disruptive football left in him, with some sporadic breaks for injury.
April 4th, 2024 at 3:17 pm
And Kay Adams loves Vita Vea’s strength. And Congratulations to him on his Baby boy. I think Kancey will help Vea thrive again. He been missing … .. Suh
April 4th, 2024 at 3:28 pm
Imagine he he played 30 pounds lighter and in shape…….wow
April 4th, 2024 at 3:50 pm
Who jumped
April 4th, 2024 at 3:56 pm
REMEMBERING VEA ROOKIE YEAR – BEST STORY EVER!!!!
Y’all remember when we drafted Vea? He came with one of my favorite Bucs stories. It goes something like this …
Vea visited the Tatian Islands on a college trip. His group is getting a tour of the island and come across a “proving ground” for local men. They are training for a coming-of-age ceremony in which they show their strength by picking up the largest rock they can. There are boulders all over the place and the men invite the group to try their strength by picking up a boulder. Vea rolls over to the LARGEST rock in the area, picks it up, and walks around with it. He thought he was impressing the locals when in fact he offended the entire island! The rock Vea lifted was so big that it was the sacred rock that was reserved for the Gods.
Time to get a new rock.
April 4th, 2024 at 4:03 pm
Dave pear. Smaller nose tackle, but the heart of a champion, which is what he was. Dude was tough as nails. I read once that he played 2 years with a broken neck. Al davis threw him to the unemployment line. Any thing al davis did didn’t surprise this poster. But it was what it was.
April 4th, 2024 at 4:13 pm
Dave Pear wasn’t fast enough for Al Davis’s liking. Legend has it that Cliff Branch once outran Pear in a foot race.
April 4th, 2024 at 4:40 pm
Lt. dan
Did you know there are 800,000 unemployed comedians in the states. Thats the best you got? 😂
April 4th, 2024 at 5:06 pm
Sly Pirate – great Vita story. I didn’t know the part about the locals being offended! LOL. Glad they didn’t make him into a human sacrifice.
April 4th, 2024 at 5:31 pm
The way I remember that bolder lifting story was that Vea thought he offended the locals by lifting a sacred rock but then learned that they were just stunned as nobody had ever been able to lift it before.
April 4th, 2024 at 5:49 pm
Add a player like Murphy from Texas to play beside him or behind and we will own the LOS. Praying Vita holds up with his size and age for a few years.
April 4th, 2024 at 5:54 pm
TomBucsFan … ‘I would not mind if they draft a monster DT/DE at 26. Players like Johnny Newton and Byron Murphy II would do it.’
They’ll both be good IMO, but the Bucs need more beef in the interior DLine to complement Vea. Newton’s 304, but Murphy’s only 297. What makes Vea so good is not just his strength; he’s a mountain. Hard to move a mountain. We need another mountain because Vea could very well be gone in a year or two.
April 4th, 2024 at 6:43 pm
Guy gets held ALL THE TIME!
April 4th, 2024 at 8:02 pm
I just can’t help but imagine how dominant he would be as a fullback in TB’s ‘run first-run heavy’ offensive preference
April 5th, 2024 at 9:49 am
I was at a party/get-together about a year ago with an ear/nose and throat doctor amongst the guests and people were talking about the Buc’s. Vita’s name came up in conversation and this doctor kept on talking about Vita being a mouth breather and that’s why he is always out of breath. Something about a deviated septum. He said he didn’t know why other doctors and coaches couldn’t diagnose his symptoms. He also said he wouldn’t wilt with the humidity so easily if they would just have him checked. Sirvocea Dennis was also on his radar, go figure, you go to an afternoon party to get schooled by a snot doctor.