Larry Foote Explains How Haason Reddick Can Help YaYa Diaby And The Entire Defensive Line
March 27th, 2025
What the d-line could be.
If the Haason Reddick the Bucs just signed is the same guy wilding on quarterbacks from 2020-2023, racking up 50.5 sacks and less like the Ghost Johnson he was with the Jets, Bucs fans could see an explosion of production on their defensive front.
Joe has been typing this ever since the Bucs signed Reddick. And when Reddick came to town to sign his contract, his new position coach and old Cardinals position coach Larry Foote explained how Reddick could ignite the line.
Foote was asked how Reddick’s presence will impact YaYa Diaby.
“He’s not going to get all the chips or the double-teams or the focus,” Foote said of YaYa. “[Offenses] aren’t going to try to focus on both of [these] guys.”
YaYa won’t be the only guy who should see better days. Foote truly believes Calijah Kancey, Logan Hall and Vita Vea will see less bodies because offenses will worry about Reddick on the edge.
“Even inside, with [Reddick’s] speed and making quarterbacks scoot up in the pocket, so those guys up front [inside] can get after him too. So we have to make sure we work hand-in-hand.”
Joe always uses the analogy of Vea in the NFC title game in Green Bay. Vea came off injured reserve to play in that game. Along with Bucs sacks king Shaq Barrett, Jason Pierre-Paul and Ndamukong Suh, adding Vea to the mix was too much for the Packers.
That enabled Shaq to fully blow up, jostle, mock and rob Packers drama queen quarterback Aaron Rodgers, helping send the Bucs to the Super Bowl.
That same impact could happen if Reddick has his normal season.
March 27th, 2025 at 7:13 am
2025 prediction. Calijah Kancey easily gets double digit sacks.
March 27th, 2025 at 7:19 am
This team is a Pass Rush away from being a solid Super Bowl contender. Go Bucs!
March 27th, 2025 at 7:26 am
Eagles site has a great clip of Reddick on a December 25th game against the Giants in which Barkley was playing. It was a 4th and 1 and Giants were going for it on the Eagles 21.
Reddick’s got that five technique, outside shoulder of the tackle. He shows some real twitch, I don’t see that from the other outside guys of the Bucs. A get off, or explosion we talk about. He’s not reading no tea leaves, he’s not waiting for the mailman! He’s shooting that C gap, man!
Barkley dropped for a 4 yard loss on 4th down.
Makes me think of Kancey missing on Jayden Daniels.
If Reddick gets back to that. Wow.
March 27th, 2025 at 7:30 am
Hassan Reddick played on a Eagles team that had an epic meltdown for the ages in 2023. That Eagles defense ranked 26 out of 32 teams. He was traded to the Jets for the 2024 season and played in 10 games and recorded two half sacks. The Jets were a pretty decent defense last year. It’s been suggested he free lances and doesn’t follow defensive scheme. I’m supposed to be excited we signed him…I’m not.. he’s probably more harm than good.
March 27th, 2025 at 7:58 am
BayouBullet … There’s a little bit more to the Eagles 2023 meltdown. They were 10-1 but then injuries just decimated them, and they lost 5 of the next 6 games to finish 11-6 (still not that shabby though). Bucs then whooped them in the Wildcard game to end their season, after they’d whooped us earlier in the season.
In those last 6 games Reddick had 2.5 sacks (not great; not terrible). Guess is that his being traded had more to do with the Eagles saving money than anything else. They were in pretty deep in Dead CAP ($63.8 mil in 2023 and $63.6 mil in 2024).
As far as the Jets go, hey, they’re the Jets. Ask Aaron Rodgers about his experience there.
March 27th, 2025 at 8:07 am
I’m actually pretty optimistic about the Reddick acquisition. My gut tells me he will regain his level of production and give the team some quality edge rush. Keeping an eye on Diaby. Let’s see if he is more than just a (less than) “one year” wonder. Will Dennis ever be more than just a 15 minutes of play a year type of player? He’s looked in those 15 minutes but with him it will always be the old club in the tub type situation. I’m one of those guys that wants to see them add an impact interior DL in the draft. Straight line to the QB situation big believer. Think it has been Defense Rules that’s been talking about that and I’m right there with him on that thinking .
March 27th, 2025 at 8:16 am
Love the caption Joe under Larry Foote’s photo: ‘What the d-line could be’. If you look at the max number of sacks & pressures each guy on our DLine has acheived in past seasons, hey we’ve got tons of potential:
o Vea: 7 sacks – 22 pressures
o Kancey: 7.5 sacks – 19 pressures
o Hall: 5.5 sacks – 10 pressures
o Gaines: 4.5 sacks – 21 pressures
o Reddick: 16 sacks – 41 pressures
o Diaby: 7.5 sacks – 32 pressures
o Nelson: 5.5 sacks – 20 pressures
o Braswell: 1.5 sacks – 12 pressures
So for just those 8 players, we could potentially hit 55 sacks and 177 pressures. And that doesn’t count the production of the new rookie DT/NT that Jason’s gonna draft to help keep Vea fresh, nor the production of ILBs & Secondary in terms of sacks & pressures. I’m pretty confident we’re gonna break the NFL record of 72 sacks either this year or next year. We just need to grab that beastly DT/NT to keep consistent pressure on.
March 27th, 2025 at 8:20 am
55 sacks and 177 pressures sounds good to me.
LOL
March 27th, 2025 at 8:25 am
Bucs recorded 5 sacks in that game to Green Bay’s 1 but the 5 were less about the D Line and more about Rodger’s not putting the ball in harms way. Rodgers had 48 TD’s to 5 INT’s the entire season and one in that game.
If I remember correctly the Packers were inside the 10 and down 8 when Devin White made a great play on the ball on 3rd down and Matt LaFleur had forgotten his balls in his Wife’s purse and took the ball out of the NFL MVP for that season on 4th and goal.
Take away that beautiful strike to Scotty Miller just before the half and the game probably has a different outcome.
Even before that in the game against the Saints the Difference was the Linebackers (mainly White) and the Secondary ( Davis, Winfield) D Line sacked Brees a whopping Zero.
Even in the Super Bowl it was less about how good the Bucs line was and more about how hollowed out the Chiefs O Line was. Even with a crippled line Bucs chased Maholmes around all day but only got to him three times and that was because the Secondary played lights out.
March 27th, 2025 at 8:57 am
Need to go to 4-3 scheme and bring constant pressure on QB’s. Best pass defense has less to do with CB’s and more to do with front 4 pressure.
March 27th, 2025 at 9:03 am
@dr
You will have to excuse my ignorance but I can’t recall any substantial defensive injuries that caused the defense to give up 428 points but I’m an old man with a terrible memory I guess. Reddick had 2.5 sacks in the eagles last 7 regular season games and 0 in the playoffs loss to our bucs. That’s 2.5 sacks in his last 8 philly games. To me that qualifies as terrible but I guess that’s just a difference of opinion. So to sum it up in Haasan Riddick s last 18 games played he has 3.5 sacks but hey like you say… The jets are the jets
March 27th, 2025 at 9:39 am
Joe’s done a great job pushing for Reddick and now our pass rush is fixed. Joe needs to find some new ILB and CB talent for us. SVD and Dean can’t stay on the field, so who can replace them?
I still think the training staff needs to improve the soft tissue injuries that plagued us last year. Recurring injuries like ME13’s hamstring and Kancey’s calf need to be prevented. I don’t accept that these soft tissue injuries are random and can’t be prevented Heating pads 24/7? Stretching every 15min? I don’t know…
March 27th, 2025 at 10:18 am
“Guess is that his being traded had more to do with the Eagles saving money than anything else. They were in pretty deep in Dead CAP ($63.8 mil in 2023 and $63.6 mil in 2024).”
Wasn’t Reddick asking for a new contract and threatening to hold out even before he was traded? The Eagles knew he wasn’t bluffing and to help their cap situation cut bait and let it be the Jets’ problem to solve.
March 27th, 2025 at 10:28 am
all depends on health and quality depth….
GO BUCS!!!!!
March 27th, 2025 at 11:15 am
Just read every post on this thread. All well written and well reasoned. Joe ends his optimistic article with if Reddick has a normal season then the Super Bowl is in the cards. BayouBullett points out our ballyhooed acquisition has 3.5 sacks his last 18 games to “curb our enthusiasm”. I don’t know much, and the older I get I realize how much I don’t know. But I do know that adding Reddick and drafting 2 more DLine-I’m cool with one beast nose tackle and one edge- and one middle linebacker who can blitz-that totals 4 new guys. In summation I’m endorsing DR and his we may just break the NFL sack record of 72!!
March 27th, 2025 at 12:23 pm
Let’s just hope Reddick is in shape and ready to go.
March 27th, 2025 at 1:54 pm
I do like the pickup of Reddick, but I don’t think Ya Ya was doubled much last year. So Reddick may not help Diaby much, But Vea and Kancey should see a few less guys here and there.
March 27th, 2025 at 1:56 pm
BayouBullet … You may very well be right about Reddick, however, I tend to give folks the benefit of the doubt. In his case, he had FOUR straight years of double-digit sacks with Arizona, Carolina & Philly, then ONE year (with the Jets) of 1 sack. Surely something (?) changed. That was 3 different teams that he got 11 or more sacks with each year … and then came the Jets.
March 27th, 2025 at 2:08 pm
Might work.
March 27th, 2025 at 2:14 pm
@dr
I hope for ours and the bucs sake you are correct. Go bucs !!!!!
March 27th, 2025 at 2:50 pm
Reddick improves the Bucs’ pass rush. Foote may improve the Bucs pass rush. Good. Great. Grand. Wonderful. There are still many opportunities to improve in this area despite the Bucs ranking seventh in sacks. Tightening up coverage and drafting an edge and inside manically like the rams did earlyThe Rams had 16 sacks in two playoff games.