Will YaYa Diaby Become The Long-Desired Homegrown Edge Rusher?
June 12th, 2024
Taking the next step.
Here’s a stat that really jumped out at Joe about outside linebacker YaYa Diaby.
Last year Diaby had nine tackles for loss in five starts. At that pace, had Diaby started all 17 regular season games, he would easily had led the league in tackles for loss.
That’s pretty freaking impressive.
Of course, Diaby will live and die in the NFL based on his sacks. He was tied for most sacks by a rookie with 6.5. Promising.
What worried Joe about Diaby was that when he finally won a starting job beginning in the 11th game, that’s when Diaby started to tail off.
Why? Was it that he hit the rookie wall (very possible)? Or was it because Diaby finally gave opposing offensive coordinators enough film to gameplan against him.
Joe wants to think it was as simple to explain away as the rookie wall. But if Diaby is the real deal and rookie edger rusher Chris Braswell can develop, wow, the Bucs ought to be right back where they were when Jason Pierre-Paul and Bucs sacks king Shaq Barrett were terrorizing quarterbacks.
STUD: #Buccaneers Rookie 3rd Round Pick YaYa Diaby:
– 5 Starts
– 6.5 Sacks (T-1 among rookies)
– 1 FF
– 2 FR
– 31 TKL
– 9 TFL
– 7 QB HITS pic.twitter.com/0dpYKWjAXK— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) December 28, 2023
June 12th, 2024 at 5:56 am
Joe … ‘if Diaby is the real deal and rookie edger rusher Chris Braswell can develop, wow, the Bucs ought to be right back where they were when Jason Pierre-Paul and Bucs sacks king Shaq Barrett were terrorizing quarterbacks.’
And THAT’S the way some of us prefer to see our DE/OLB room Joe. Our 2 youngsters (Diaby at 6’4″ & 270 lbs and Braswell at 6’3″ & 255 lbs) are both very talented. They’ve got a great coach in George Edwards. Just need time to meld together as a unit with Vea, Kancey et al.
June 12th, 2024 at 6:10 am
Joe, a question next time you talk to YaYa, George, or Bowles “was the tail off the rookie wall or OL adapting to your game?”
June 12th, 2024 at 6:27 am
Haha yeah right. Still a big hole at DE. We could have made moves but keep going the cheap route.
June 12th, 2024 at 6:41 am
Mauch hit a wall too. We forget how young these players are, how hard the league is, and it’s a long season. I’m excited to see YaYa, Cancy, Braswell, watch them grow together will be fun. Forget the Riddicks, and Gregory’s.
June 12th, 2024 at 6:47 am
I recall Joe and most of us here hollering for him to start from the beginning of the season. Who knows what he could have done..unfortunately we will never know.
June 12th, 2024 at 6:56 am
AGAIN, it has to play out on the field but having said that, when you look at the youth infusion on this team on both sides of the ball you have to recall that ole Timbuk3 (1 hit wonders) “The Future’s So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades”!
June 12th, 2024 at 7:20 am
I wish they’d bring JPP back in a player development capacity.
These rookies will be interesting to watch. How they respond to their rookie seasons always determines the future of any player.
In the case of Diaby, some more speed and power, and expanding his technique will be important.
I’m curious as to what our second year guys have been doing to get better this off season.
June 12th, 2024 at 8:09 am
Honestly, I’m not even worried about Yaya because the line on him this offseason was more bend and building counters to get through his assignment. The athlete he is and if his dedication to the game is what it sounds like, he’ll have success just being himself.
I wanna see more Markees Watts, to me he’s the most interesting unknown on the defensive side(Tyrek ballhawk Funderburk & Keenan Isaac too) of the ball and I hope he wrecks sh*t in the preseason.
Also, Anthony Nelson is a homegrown talent and SB champ, plz put some respect on his name as his numbers last season with 0 starts aren’t too far off from Yayas’.
June 12th, 2024 at 8:16 am
Admittedly a couple of big “ifs” with YaYa and Braswell, but it’s promising. I’m not seeing Randy Gregory being here after camp
June 12th, 2024 at 8:20 am
Beat that dead horse all offseason Joe. It isn’t getting any more dead.
June 12th, 2024 at 8:22 am
He got hurt.
He was playing with a shoulder injury.
JPP will go down in history like AI.
He never worked out. He didn’t lift weights.
JPP could have been the greatest DE of all time if he had had the work ethic of Tom Brady.
Diaby is also a West African physical Adonis as JPP was. JPP is Haitian. With most likely zero European DNA like many Black Americans.
JPP and Diaby are West African cousins. From Senegal to Haiti.
French colonies.
The French slave trade.
June 12th, 2024 at 9:11 am
If Diaby is the real deal—if rookie edger rusher Chris Braswell …
As usual, a plethora of “ifs” gotta metamorphose into a reality for great things to happen, but that is the hope for every team. We know what we have in YaYa, and can reasonably conclude the arrow is pointing up. Braswell, however, is still an unknown. But I like the selection!
June 12th, 2024 at 9:44 am
It seemed like when he got hurt in the Lions game our pass rush dropped off a cliff. That’s not in any stats but just visual memory
June 12th, 2024 at 9:57 am
Joe, he had 7.5 sacks. The stats guy gotta check his stats.
June 12th, 2024 at 9:58 am
I’d like to see those numbers (the real ones) stacked up by Will Anderson. Guess what, yayas look better.
June 12th, 2024 at 10:21 am
Look how little that football looks in his hands!
June 12th, 2024 at 10:33 am
JPP definitely was a baller but damn, he said some weird stuff.
June 12th, 2024 at 11:13 am
teacherman1983
JPP and Diaby are West African cousins. From Senegal to Haiti.
French colonies.
The French slave trade.
^^^^^^^
HFS! CRAZIEST POST EVER!!!! You are suggesting the Bucs scouting department follow slave trade routes to find DE? OMG! WHOA!!!!
The rest of y’all (AND Joe) just glossed over this post, too. Like, “Ya, good point. We should stop looking at those decedents English colonial slaves and stick exclusively to French colonial.” Just, wow!
I’ll keep saying it because y’all keep showing it: Floridians are seriously different.
June 12th, 2024 at 11:18 am
YaYa had 7.5 sacks
June 12th, 2024 at 11:26 am
@teacherman1983
This isn’t the forum for digging too deep in this topic,but I am compelled to correct a very false statement you made. Give or take+\- around 13% of this country’s population known as Black Americans,most in fact do have European blood in their gene makeup! As descendants from slaves their ancestors were simply property which it was common for the women to be visited at night on a regular bases by their owners!
June 12th, 2024 at 11:45 am
Teacherman, if JPP wouldn’t have blown his fingers off, his career might have been different. His work ethic and preparation were top notch. I’m not sure where you get these high flying ideas. I’m not even going to entertain your Geography lesson. Has zero bearing.
June 12th, 2024 at 11:47 am
For the same reason my post correcting teacherman got taken down before anyone could see it is the same reason Brad Holmes is 2X the talent evaluator than Jason Licht
June 12th, 2024 at 12:03 pm
@teacherman1983 … WTF
That’s some seriously disgusting racist sh*$. You have problems, man.
June 12th, 2024 at 12:04 pm
@SlyPirate
Relax, it’s a harmless post and historically almost on the nose. Diabys’ folks are from Guinea, which is one of many homes of the Mandinka people(the very word “mandingo” was derived from) who are spread out between Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, Ghana & Sierra Leone.
Teach said nothing about about preference from french/english descendants, just hinted at the fact Yaya & Diaby probably have as little european dna as possible which is beleivable. If you know the story about the revolt on the Amistad, you’d know that ship was carrying Mandinka cargo. These people aside from being fishers and farms were know to be fierce warriors in the days of antiquity. History is awesome
June 12th, 2024 at 3:26 pm
Yeah, people get all defensive and offended over literally nothing, at all. So what, what he said. He doesn’t speak for any other “Floridian” but himself, & never insinuated anything to do with the Bucs scouting department. But, YOU just did. All of that complete nonsense, is all inside of your own head. Honestly, I don’t know what the heck he was even saying, or what all is in HIS head. It just sounded like someone possibly with Tourette’s or something, to me!?
June 12th, 2024 at 5:07 pm
@teacherman1983, I read your post again, and I don’t think you were projecting racism. It was a pretty cringe thing to post in a comment on a sports blog, but probably not malicious. If that’s true, I apologize for overreacting.
June 12th, 2024 at 7:48 pm
😎😎😎 Good one, stpetebucfan. Timbuk3 is one of my favorite names used for a musical duo. 😍
June 12th, 2024 at 7:50 pm
I have faith in the development of Diablo.
Go Bucs! 😎
June 13th, 2024 at 8:09 pm
I love Yaya dabbie he is definitely going to step up this year and for years to come