Todd Bowles Thinks YaYa Diaby Could Have Had 15 Sacks In 2024
February 26th, 2025
Bucs OLB YaYa Diaby.
While Todd Bowles was very open yesterday in his combine media sessions in Indianapolis about the Bucs needing more production from the defensive edge on pass plays, he was effusive in his praise for edge rusher YaYa Diaby.
Bowles believes Diaby was this-close to having double-digit sacks.
“We thought he was one of our best pass rushers,” Bowles said of Diaby. “He had more pressures than anybody. He didn’t finish them, but we thought he became a much better player.”
In his second season, Diaby had 4.5 sacks, down from 7.5 as a rookie. Still, Bowles was impressed by how quarterbacks had to make an effort to avoid a sack from Diaby’s smoke.
“He wasn’t thinking as much,” Bowles said. “Some of those [rushes] could have easily turned into a 15-sack year.”
That would have been triple of what Diaby actually had. Bowles believes the sacks will come. He raved about Diaby’s work ethic and dedication to his craft.
“He’s playing his tail off,” Bowles said. “I was really happy the way he played. Obviously he didn’t have the results that you really want. But the way he played was unbelievable.”
Joe still maintains if the Bucs got a proven edge rusher (you know, like this guy), Diaby’s numbers would shoot up as teams won’t be keying on him so much.
February 26th, 2025 at 1:21 pm
Well that didn’t happen because Bowles was to busy worrying about dropping him into coverage on our biggest 3rd down of the season against WAS .
February 26th, 2025 at 1:23 pm
Yeah, I think he can be really good too, he needs a partner and a scheme where we have everyone rush and not drop in coverage all the dang time, pretending to play zone.
February 26th, 2025 at 1:25 pm
I sure hope when he watched all that film , he thought to himself yeah I can’t drop me Ends into coverage like that.
February 26th, 2025 at 1:46 pm
I’ve mentioned it before, but if you listened to other teams podcasts after we played them – they almost always mentioned how good Yaya looked. If Bowles would stop with the trash super soft zone garbage, that alone should get Yaya some more sacks. Last year Bowles had the secondary playing so soft, and so far back, that even if they got pressured (in particular from outside) they always had an easy pass available to them as guys would be standing wide open.
In situations where Bowles would tighten up the coverage, or heaven forbid, play man defense – that’s when the Bucs would rack up their sacks, and they’d get them in bunches.
Hopefully, from what I’ve heard this offseason, Bowles is going to go away from zone – which would be a good thing to do anyways since everyone is seemingly playing zone now.
February 26th, 2025 at 2:02 pm
Of course Bowles said this. He says this same thing every single off-season. It’s an insult to anyone that has been paying attention. You can set your watch by what he’s going to say and when he is going to say it. For those of you that enjoy a broken record that delivers mediocrity then Bowles is your guy.
February 26th, 2025 at 2:23 pm
Did Bowles say how many sacks JTS could’ve had, too?
February 26th, 2025 at 2:29 pm
Well, you have always told us that Bowles was very funny. Exhibit 1 right there. Diaby deserves a participation trophy so far, nothing more. No one (that means not a single team) keyed on Diaby. He played “his tail off” right into the dirt at the feet of a lot of blockers. He might be something, but it will be a ways into the future. Didn’t it take Shaq 5-6 seasons before he was a stud? Diaby won’t be that good but I do expect him to improve a bit.
February 26th, 2025 at 2:29 pm
The hope train keeps running down the tracks. I’m with Joe we have to have an established edge rusher no more hope no more wishing just make it happen Jason pleeeeeease!
February 26th, 2025 at 2:40 pm
Once Diaby hit is stride he went on a tear. Then when the book came out on him he’s barely done anything since. Which again is no surprise since Bowles has yet to develop any kind of edge rusher throughout his entire career. Thanks to Jason Licht and the Glazers, fans can expect a continuing ration of mediocrity. CTB.500 is what he is, What he’s always been and what he will always be.
February 26th, 2025 at 3:13 pm
What is the plan to teach all our near miss guys to become Shaq-like? One thing – stop having them cover the WR. Second thing – maybe (this is controversial) coach them on pass rush technique. I know.
February 26th, 2025 at 3:29 pm
IDK. I thought this was the most interesting of all his interviews so far. He was more animated and (to me) he gave more information than usual.
February 26th, 2025 at 4:07 pm
Todd Bowles just basically indicted himself. Either the scheme is bad, or the backend can’t cover long enough. Diaby had the 9th highest pressure rate (out of 211 DE’s) and only 4.5 sacks. That is simply not enough sacks or good enough with that pressure rate.
Bowles really needs to dig deep into his side of the ball. No stone unturned…need to upgrade personnel, better coaching, and get in the lab and upgrade/ and better scheme.
February 26th, 2025 at 4:28 pm
Bring Mack so he can take Yaya under his wing and to learn from
February 26th, 2025 at 5:46 pm
PoundTheRock … ‘Todd Bowles just basically indicted himself. Either the scheme is bad, or the backend can’t cover long enough.’
You left out … or the personnel are inadequate to make the scheme work. Our best days for controlling the LOS was when we had Vea, Suh, RNR & a younger Gholston in there bring pressure up the middle. Shaq & JPP feasted. Right now we’ve only got Vea to bring that inside pressure, and he’s only in there for 50-60% of the def snaps. I love Gaines, but he doesn’t bring much inside pressure. Kancey does though, and another big body (like Vea?) should help free him up more often.
Grab another big, fast body this draft (and there are several of them available who’ll go in Rnds 1-3 IMO), and we could increase the inside pressure a bunch (make it more consistent). That should force opposing QBs to either get rid of the ball faster OR move laterally to buy time. Not much we can do about the former (except provide better short coverage), but the latter helps our OLBs and should result in more sacks.
February 26th, 2025 at 6:06 pm
Anything is possible, I guess. Depends on who Licht brings in as free agents and early round draft picks to play the other edge position and keep offensive lineman occupied to free up Diaby.
Maybe Todd knows something is in the works.
If so, Todd should find out the Vegas odds for this event happening and put $100 bet down.
February 26th, 2025 at 6:37 pm
Plan9 could of had 20 sacks.
February 26th, 2025 at 6:43 pm
Yes he is going to be HC and DC this year…..Pathetic.
February 26th, 2025 at 6:50 pm
The game has changed and most non-rookie QBs are getting rid of the ball fast. Not too many are holding the ball as long as QBs once did (are you listening Baker?). My hunch is that the big time sackers had those numbers the last couple years because their schedule just happened to align with the ever more scarce QBs who hold onto the ball longer than 3 seconds. In other words, a double digit sack person is going to increasingly become a rarity and hoping for one may end up costing the team far more than they are worth. After all, even the Bucs few great recent pass rushers only did it for a season (sorry, it’s a different game from back when Simeon Rice was dominant). You get an Edge Rusher who averages 7-8 per season and you have a winner these days! Check out the in-division teams the current sacks leaders get to play twice a year and maybe you’ll see why they have such great sack numbers (Myles Garret gets to play Pittsburgh and Cincinnati twice per year – two bottom ten teams in allowing QB sacks, for instance)
February 26th, 2025 at 7:06 pm
I think Braswell is going to step up to be a quality starter opposite Diaby. The needle is pointing up for both. As for adding a player from outside, I would not be giving up 2 #1’s for Myles Garrett. I’d consider some young free agent pass rushers with upside that come in on a reasonable contract to prove they can take the next step.
February 26th, 2025 at 7:24 pm
I forgot where I saw it but somebody did a break down of pressure rates, sacks, etc and Yaya was in the group right below the elite pass rushers. Like most everyone else here I think another bookend and less dropping into useless coverage and Yaya is a double digit sack guy.