Todd Bowles Raves About Calijah Kancey’s Play
February 25th, 2025
Todd Bowles approved.
Last year, Calijah Kancey had a regular season for the ages. That’s what NextGen Stats claimed.
The NFL’s in-house stats organization that uses GPS monitoring of chips inside footballs and players’ equipment generates oodles of data. In NextGen Stats’ breakdown of Kancey, he was charted as not missing one tackle in the 2024 regular season.
Joe asked Bucs coach Todd Bowles about that stat today at the combine. Bowles was both surprised and a wee bit dubious. He claimed that stat may force him to go back and break down Kancey’s game film again.
(Joe also mentioned the stat to Bucs’ AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht, who was taken aback by the data.)
Still, the stat, even if it is a bit off, reinforced what Bowles already thought: last year’s first-round draft pick had a damn good season.
“I thought he did a heck of a job from [2023] to [2024] from a run game standpoint and a pass game standpoint,” Bowles said. “He missed five games last year. When he came back, [offenses] weren’t double-teaming him and blowing him off the football.
“He understood the game. We freed him up a little bit. We did some things [to help him] and I thought he became a heck of a player.
“Had he made the first five games, he may have made the Pro Bowl as well. I’m very happy with his play.”
The big issue with Kancey when he came out of Pitt wasn’t his pass-rushing skills. Those were obvious. His ability to defend the run was a question — a question that apparently has been answered.
Joe believes Kancey is on the cusp of being a force.
Imagine how much production Kancey would have chasing quarterbacks if the Bucs had a strong edge rusher.
February 25th, 2025 at 5:04 pm
Let’s see if the new strength coaches can prevent his calf injuries.
February 25th, 2025 at 5:06 pm
Just go out & sign Sweat or Mack & watch how much that’ll help Yaya. Sign Shaq for another year, too! That’s why Yaya wasn’t doing that much because he had nobody on the other side. Tryon is nothing so teams know they really don’t have to worry about him but when Shaq came back it opened things up some more for Yaya because teams know Shaq is capable of doing something. Pretty bad the dude comes off the couch & teams are more focused on him still over Tryon. That’s why Kancey & Vita are fine because teams have to focus on both of them. I don’t know if I’d actually draft a DE because usually they struggle every time they draft one. Yaya is the only one right now that’s actually looking decent. Most of the ones they’ve had luck with they’ve either signed or traded for. Kind of wondering if they really should just go DE in just FA & then just focus on D in the draft the rest of the way. Maybe another G wouldn’t hurt.
February 25th, 2025 at 6:13 pm
Let’s hope and pray that he figures out his calf before next season.
February 25th, 2025 at 8:21 pm
Look at the DEs they’ve drafted recently over the years.
JOE TRYON (turning into a bust)
GAINES ADAMS (bust)
DAQUAN BOWERS (bust)
ADRIAN CLAYBORN (bust)
KYLE MOORE (didn’t do much)
NOAH SPENCE (bust)
CHRIS BRASWELL (hopefully he works out but I wasn’t much of a fan of him coming out either)
February 25th, 2025 at 8:22 pm
Next season Kancey will be asked to drop deep 80% of his snaps. Gotta have jacks of all trades in this defense.