Chris Braswell Mysteriously Overlooked
April 24th, 2025
It seems when Buccaneers Ring of Honor general manager Jason Licht said at the NFL Scouting Combine that second-year edge rusher Chris Braswell will “shock” people this season, he wasn’t widely believed.
Last year’s No. 57 overall pick had a forgettable rookie year and saw his snaps cut late in the 2024 campaign.
Still, Licht is bullish, which is no surprise. Most edge rushers need a year to blossom.
However, Bucs employee, legend and close friend of Licht, Rondé Barber, wants Tampa Bay to select an edge rusher in Round 1 tonight. He’s not feeling the Braswell hype.
“I want to see, personally, I want to see them take an edge guy to add some competition to what they have in YaYa Diaby and Haason Reddick,” Barber said. “Anthony Nelson is really the only accomplished guy that’s got playing time there. As good as he’s been for going on seven years, you know, you still need some dynacism at that position and we don’t have it. And it’s available in this year’s draft.”
(Editor’s note: There appears “dynacism” is a made up word, but Joe’s heard Barber use it previously, so perhaps it’s important.)
Why did Barber leave out Braswell? Heck, Barber breaks down Bucs film of every game.
This has Joe intrigued but not surprised.
April 24th, 2025 at 8:57 am
I think (hope) Braswell comes along like Yaya did, still waiting on him to fully break out but I’m cautiously optimistic Reddick can fill a whole in the mean time while Braswell and Yaya are our long term options.
April 24th, 2025 at 9:00 am
Braswell looked stiff, slow and weak. He lacks fluidity and strength to overpower offensive tackles.
I would not be opposed to grabbing an edge player upon further reflection.
Maybe you guys are right.
I would be okay with an edge OLB in the first and a DT/NT or DT/DE in the 2nd.
Corners in the 3rd and 4th.
April 24th, 2025 at 9:04 am
My limited hope for Braswell stems from Larry Foote back at OLB coach and more of a focus on pass rush (supposedly)
April 24th, 2025 at 9:05 am
We definitely need to take LB first or second round, best available. Braswell did well enough last year to earn a uniform and a helmet, perhaps with competition he might show he has the talent to help us get off the field on 3rd down
April 24th, 2025 at 9:08 am
Can’t break his game down on film if he never plays – outta sight outta mind
April 24th, 2025 at 9:09 am
This team is great at drafting.
Except pass rushers.
I’d rather see them sin the other positions we need- then sign a free agent pass rusher.
It takes a couple years for them to develop anyway.
And so far, we’ve patiently waited- to find our young draftee DEs suck.
Sometimes- ya gotta acknowledge your weaknesses- And then play to your strengths.
And drafting pass rushers ain’t a strength for the Bucs
April 24th, 2025 at 9:10 am
You can’t rely on a player until they prove it on the field.
April 24th, 2025 at 9:13 am
They stuck it out with JTS for four years. You think they’re going to give up on Braswell after one season? I don’t care how close anybody thinks Ronde Barber is to the organization, he’s just flinging crap against a wall at this point.
Whats the quickest way to get misinformation into the interwebs? Tell a close acquaintance that you know can’t keep their mouth shut, and then sit back and watch all the little media outlets gobble it up and run with it. I don’t even think that’s the situation with Barber, I just think he has a big enough ego that he thinks him talking will influence a pick somehow. One day he thinks the Bucs are picking a reciever, the next day it’s an edge rusher, then by tonight when they take a defensive back he will have magically known it all along. That’s the beauty of flinging crap, eventually something sticks.
April 24th, 2025 at 9:17 am
He must mean dynamism.
April 24th, 2025 at 9:20 am
Didn’t Barber just say, maybe 48 hours ago, that he thought the pick would be a WR? I suppose this is just a want for him, and not what he thinks the team will actually do.
Here’s the deal people, you can throw as many young pass rushers as you want at this roster. Bowles won’t trust them to get to the QB, so he won’t put them in a good position to get to the QB.
April 24th, 2025 at 9:21 am
They’ve had much better luck with Tackles on both sides of the ball so maybe they should go in that direction. Especially when they say this year is loaded with talent.
April 24th, 2025 at 9:23 am
Also Barber is towing the company line or in this case Smoke Screen.
April 24th, 2025 at 9:26 am
Nothing mysterious. You have to do something first
April 24th, 2025 at 9:28 am
We’re pretty much set at edge rusher, I don’t think we’ll draft one high.
DB/Safety/Corner, ILB and another WR are our needs going into this draft
April 24th, 2025 at 9:36 am
Will learn a lot about Jason and Ronde’s smokescreen tendencies once the picks are made lol
April 24th, 2025 at 9:45 am
Maybe we should draft stud corners and safeties then all out blitz and hope man coverage works lol
April 24th, 2025 at 9:50 am
Teacherman Says:
Braswell looked stiff, slow and weak. He lacks fluidity and strength to overpower offensive tackles.
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@Teacherman, hopefully Braswell addressed some of those issues in the off-season. I’m sure he was told during his exit interview at the end of the season what he needed to work on.
If he did, perhaps Licht’s claim about us being “shocked” about Braswell will be spot on. 😉
I do fully expect he’ll make a significant jump from his rookie year as almost all edge rushers do. And I’d love to be shocked! 😉
April 24th, 2025 at 9:53 am
Didn’t Barber predict the Bucs would take a WR with their pick at #19? Perhaps Licht is going to invoke a little known codicil in the NFL draft rule book, which will allow us to get both an edge rusher and WR at #19.
April 24th, 2025 at 10:17 am
Chris squats 705. Chris power cleaned 405. That is strength. He also has a 38.5 vertical jump. That’s not too bad. I’m still.betting on him.
April 24th, 2025 at 10:17 am
Personally convinced that we’re blaming our OLBs (en masse) for things that are largely out of their control.
o We all know how much priority Todd Bowles places on stopping the run … Job #1. Seal the edges. and we actually do that quite well. But does that influence our OLBs’ git-off in any way? I’m not sure.
o When Vea’s in there on a pass play, he often (not always) commands a double-team. And even then he often pushes the pile … backwards. He is in short … a beast. But no way he could apply that kind of ‘influence’ on every play that he’s out there. That’s why rotations are so important IMO … they help us get more CONSISTENT PASS RUSH PRESSURE.
We’re lacking a 2nd beast. But the real beasts don’t come at the bottom of the pecking order; they’re at the top. Spend a top pick and it’ll reward everyone.
April 24th, 2025 at 10:20 am
Likely a simple matter of that Braswell has not proven anything yet. Not necessarily an assessment of his future value. No need to read into it too much, unless you’re reaching for a crap article topic.
April 24th, 2025 at 10:31 am
If you play with Mock Drafts, the best overall Drafts start with an Edge in the 1st and MLB in the 2nd. That’s to say this draft is loaded with DB/S/DL but light on quality Edge and MLB.
April 24th, 2025 at 10:35 am
He may be just focused on the two guys that are definitely starters and then the one guy who has tons of experience, Nelly. Braswell is a rookie with potential and isn’t there yet. I like the idea of the new OLB coach (back at the right position) and then a sack master like Reddick in the mix. Will elevate everybody.
I would be perfectly happy if they drafted EZ or one of the other higher rated edge rushers but a DT like Nolen, Harmon or either of the hauses from Michigan that might fall… would be my preference.
April 24th, 2025 at 10:41 am
Ronde Barber has endeared himself in many ways to Bucs fans but now he is going Yogi and brilliantly fixing the English language for us too. Put “dynamism” in the addictionary. Great stuff.
I started my draft day by donning the least wrinkled ensemble from my floordrobe, doused myself in ho-catcher, checked myself in the mirror and immediately proceeded to pregretting whiskey boarding myself when the Bucs select a flabulous DT or that tw@tdog Stutsman instead of the players I’ve been typerventilating over for months.
I’m going to stay gruntled no matter what. I’m only going to gurgitate a few so I stay ebriated and don’t crash Joe’s server with my unlightening textpectations before we even get to the liminal stage of this process when the picks are handed in and announced.
I will do my level best to keep this here internest the bastion of blamestorming and nonversation we need it to be where we can gather to cheer, jeer and smear our beloved errorist organization and one other.
Happy draft day everybody! I dare you to be as ecstatic as I am that we finally made it to today.
April 24th, 2025 at 10:47 am
If we pick an edge at number 19, we will know Jason or really didn’t mean that
April 24th, 2025 at 10:57 am
Braswell played corner, not edge. He was drafted as an edge but used as a CB. The few times I saw him rush the passer he looked ok.
Let chickens be chickens and hawks be hawks.
April 24th, 2025 at 11:17 am
Beeej Says:
April 24th, 2025 at 10:47 am
Nope. It’s possible that they could see Braswell blowing up AND want to add another edge rusher. Having too many is not a problem. Also you’re always trying to cover for injuries and the whatifs, such as what if Braswell doesn’t take the next step. No good personnel man would leave himself uncovered in the event the player doesn’t develop as you expect.
April 24th, 2025 at 11:30 am
I don’t think he’s all that great at scouting players. I love Rondé HOWEVER, he was enamored with Vernon Hargreaves. Come on man. To say he is prone to hyperbole is an understatement.
April 24th, 2025 at 11:55 am
Erik with Pilot and Driver™ Says:
April 24th, 2025 at 9:28 am
We’re pretty much set at edge rusher, I don’t think we’ll draft one high.
Eric, you’re looking at different games than I am. Braswell is starting to smell like JTS 2.0. Mike green looks good to me. Else, Nolen/Grant should be it.
April 24th, 2025 at 1:18 pm
Because Bras-who?
April 24th, 2025 at 2:45 pm
I’ve heard and have used dynacism before as well.
April 24th, 2025 at 3:30 pm
You can’t have too many edge rushers – and Hassan is only on a one-year deal, and Yaya is going to get extremely expensive to keep in the near future. Having next man up, ready to go, is never a bad idea.