SR’s Fab 5: Bucs Smart To Improve Pass Rush

Bucs OLB YaYa Diaby – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Welcome to SR’s Fab 5 – my weekly insider column on the Bucs that features five things that are on my mind. SR’s Fab 5 is now a quicker read, but still packs a punch. Enjoy!

FAB 1. Bucs Were Smart To Improve Pass Rush

The Bucs will have a better pass rush this year, damn it.

If they don’t, it certainly won’t be for a lack of trying.

Since 2021, the Bucs have invested three of the team’s last top picks on pass rushers – outside linebacker Joe Tryon-Shoyinka in 2021, defensive tackle Logan Hall in 2022 and Calijah Kancey in 2023. Tampa Bay also drafted a pair of edge rushers this past April in YaYa Diaby in the third round and Jose Ramirez in the sixth round.

While the Bucs are quite young up front, they’re also much quicker, faster and more athletic than they’ve ever been since Todd Bowles came to town in 2019. Bowles and general manager Jason Licht and the team’s personnel department believes that Tampa Bay needed to be faster up front to gain an edge on quarterbacks, who are getting rid of the football faster than ever in the modern day game.

The Bucs’ pass rush wasn’t quite good enough last year for Bowles’ liking, especially with defensive tackle Vita Vea leading the way with just 6.5 sacks. That was a career high for the big, 350-pound interior defender, but there is no way Tampa Bay wants him leading the team in sacks – unless he’s reaching double digits.

The 2022 season marked the first in Bowles’ career as a play-caller where the outside linebackers did not lead the team in sacks. Reserve edge rusher Anthony Nelson’s career-high 5.5 sacks was tied with inside linebacker Devin White for the second-most sacks in Tampa Bay.

The Bucs were tied for seventh with 45 sacks last year after notching 47 sacks in 2021, which also ranked seventh in the league. The Bucs have had the potential to reach 50-plus sacks over the last couple of seasons, but have fallen short.

While sacks are an indicator of a team’s pass-rushing prowess, they are not the end all, be all. Pass rush pressure rate is just as important, and the Bucs fell from 28.6% in 2021 to just 21.9% last year, according to Pro Football Reference. That’s more indicative of Tampa Bay’s struggles when getting to the quarterback in 2022 than just falling off by two sacks from the year prior.

In a concerted effort to help bolster the Bucs’ pass defense, Bowles blitzed less often in 2022. Significantly less, according to Pro Football Reference, which had Tampa Bay’s blitz rate at 45.4% in 2021 and just 28.3% last season.

As a result, hurries were down from 273 in 2021 to 155 last year, according to Pro Football Focus, and QB hits were also down from 94 in 2021 to 65 last year. Even the number of total batted passes decreased from 19 to six.

With Tom Brady’s departure and a brand new offensive scheme, it will take time for that unit to gel and come together.

So further bolstering the team’s strength – Bowles’ defense – was a wise move.

Nothing can help get an opposing offense off the field on third down and contribute to takeaways like a dominant pass rush.

“To me in my career it’s been proven that if you can affect quarterbacks – however you do it – at a high level, you’ve got a chance,” Bucs vice president of player personnel John Spytek said after the draft. “I told Jason this the other day – I’m fortunate enough to have won two Super Bowls in my career. Both times it was because we just couldn’t stop hitting quarterbacks in the playoffs. We just were relentless after them. Go back and watch the Denver playoff games. Von Miller, DeMarcus Ware – they could not be stopped. Malik Jackson could not be stopped.

“You go back to a couple of years ago [in 2020] and I think people know what happened (the Bucs won Super Bowl LV). We weren’t going to force it, but YaYa fell to us and we were excited about it and to add another one that has been productive – the MAC (Mid-America Conference) is a quality football conference, they play good football there and he won Defensive Player of the Year and was around the quarterback all the time. The more you can affect those great quarterbacks, the better. It’s easier to affect the quarterback than it is for our guys to cover forever.”

FAB 2. Bucs Eager To See New Trio Of Pass Rushers In Pads

Tampa Bay’s rookie trio of pass rushers looks as fast, quick and athletic as advertised in the team’s rookie mini-camp and throughout the first two weeks of OTA practices. But without the pads on during the non-contact OTAs, the Bucs can’t get a full grasp of how quickly they’ll be able to make an impact in the trenches. They’ll find out soon enough as training camp starts in less than two months.

But based on their college production, the Bucs have some real promise when it comes to the pass-rushing prowess.

Defensive tackle Calijah Kancey, the team’s first-rounder, recorded 7.5 sacks last year at Pittsburgh and had 14.5 over the last two seasons.

“He was a really fun player in the fall – he’s a great, fun player to watch when you’re a scout,” Bucs vice president of player personnel John Spytek said. “Then you kind of get done with it and you’re like, ‘That was awesome – the energy he plays with, how disruptive he is, the effort he gives play after play, how athletic he is. Oh boy … he’s six-foot, 275 pounds.’ So, you kind of mark it and you’re like, ‘Alright, well, if our coaches will like him then we’ve got a player here. So, we obviously had great meetings with Todd [Bowles] and his staff and they’re like, ‘Oh, we’ve got a great plan for him – we love this kid.’

“It’s hard to find inside pass rushers in this league – it’s really hard. Todd has been after a three technique like Calijah that can really run for a long time. I’m sure he’d prefer that Calijah were 310 pounds or something like that, but at the same time, he’s undeterred. Him, Kacy [Rodgers] and Coach [Larry] Foote are undeterred by his size. So, after a lot of talk and a lot of evaluation, we weren’t so much concerned about his size – it was more about what he can do, and he did it at an extremely high level for years at Pitt. We kind of love the kid, the story – he’s been kind of counted out or underappreciated for his entire career and he just keeps proving people wrong.”

YaYa Diaby, an outside linebacker drafted in the third round, led Louisville with nine sacks. At 6-foot-3, 263 pounds, he has the speed-to-power element to his game that a more finesse pass rusher like Joe Tryon-Shoyinka possesses.

“The 4.52 [40-yard dash] I think jumps off of the tape, but to me, the first thing you notice about him is the relentlessness that he plays with,” Spytek said. “Guys that are pass rushers that run a 4.52, if they’re not going to chase people into the open field, you’re just never going to feel that speed. There is a play that showed up in some of the highlights where he is on the left and he kind of dips inside against Florida State, while I think No. 21 is trying to run a reverse, and he bends and runs the guys down and tackles him before he can turn the edge.

“You don’t see that a lot, and it starts with the fact that he is willing to give the effort to put himself in that position to make the tackle. Because he is, then you’re like, well he can really run too. Then you watch him over and over again. He plays 100 miles per hour every play and plays with a passion and an energy that a lot of the great pass rushers have. He has lots of technique to work on, but he loves ball, he has been through a lot of adversity. He showed you he loved football and he just happened to run a 4.52, as well, which is pretty cool. Todd is excited about that.”

Jose Ramirez, who was selected in the sixth round out of Eastern Michigan, tallied 12 sacks to lead the Eagles. While he’s smaller at 6-foot-2, 242 pounds, Ramirez dominated the agility drills at the NFL Scouting Combine and wins with quickness – kind of like another Bucs edge rusher.

“Jose just has a feel to rush the passer,” Spytek said. “The more you watch, the more you appreciate – he just ends up around the quarterback a lot. I’m not comparing him to Shaq Barrett, but if I was, I’d say when I watched Shaq Barrett win the Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year when I was a scout for Denver, he just grew on you and grew on you and grew on you the more you watched him because he was around the quarterback all the time.

“They both were their conference Defensive Players of the Year. They both were undersized. I’m not saying he is, but he reminds you of some of the things that Shaq did. Shaq isn’t a Von Miller athlete, or a Myles Garrett, but he’s highly rated in pressures throughout the last four or five seasons. I’m not saying Jose is going to be, but in college he was.”

FAB 3. Bucs Need To Feed Mike Evans (Again) Near The End Zone

Mike Evans’ first NFL touchdown came on beautifully thrown 7-yard fade pass from Mike Glennon at Pittsburgh in 2014 to give Tampa Bay a 7-0 lead. That score helped lead a 27-24 upset of the Steelers and would be the first of only two wins for the Bucs that season.

And it paved the way for the 6-foot-5, 225-pound to become the ultimate weapon near the end zone for the Bucs.

Through his nine seasons in Tampa Bay, Evans has hauled in 38 of his franchise-record 81 touchdowns inside the 10-yard line. He added another 3-yard TD against the Saints in 30-20 win during the 2020 playoffs.

Evans has produced double-digit touchdowns in four of his nine years with the Bucs. He set the team-record with 12 receiving touchdowns as a rookie and tied that in 2016, which was the first of four Pro Bowl seasons.

Evans helped the Bucs win Super Bowl LV with 13 receiving touchdowns in 2020, a new franchise record. Nine of Evans’ 13 TDs that year came from inside the 10-yard line with five of those scores coming inside the 5-yard line.

He smashed his own record again in 2021 with 14 touchdown catches to make his fourth Pro Bowl. Once again, Evans was dominant on fade catches and quick slants and screens near the goal line, as eight out of 14 TDs came inside the 10-yard line with seven coming inside the 5-yard line.

Last year the Bucs’ offense nearly came to a screeching halt, falling from 30 points per game the two previous seasons to just 18. Part of the reason why the scoring was down in Tampa Bay was because Evans’ touchdown production fell from 14 to just six TDs.

Only three of Evans’ 2022 touchdowns came inside the red zone. The first was a 5-yard fade at Dallas in Week 1, followed by a 13-yard score and a 1-yard TD against Kansas City in Week 4. Evans’ other three touchdowns came from 30 yards and beyond.

Thankfully, feeding Evans the ball inside the 20-yard line and down by the end zone will be re-emphasized this year.

“We’ve got to make that a priority,” Bucs head coach Todd Bowles said after Tuesday’s OTA practice. “Obviously, I think we made it a priority last year. Sometimes it was shut down, sometimes we just misread it here and there, whether it was on the receiver line or the O-linemen [not holding up in pass protection].

“We’ve got to get better in that area and get him the football. We know he’s a threat and we know he’s a great player. So we’ve got to constantly find ways to get it to not just him, but Chris [Godwin] as well.”

FAB 4. Kyle Trask, Zyon McCollum Most Improved Bucs – So Far

If you’re curious about which Bucs players are standing out so far through two weeks of OTAs, the feedback I’ve gotten from inside the AdventHealth Training Center is quarterback Kyle Trask on offense and cornerback Zyon McCollum on defense.

That’s not to say that Trask has pulled ahead of veteran Baker Mayfield in the quarterback competition. It’s just that Trask looks a heck of a lot better than he did last summer in his second year in Tampa Bay.

Trask has lost some weight and gained more mobility this offseason, and is playing with more confidence in 2023 – even though he is learning a brand new offense. Both Trask and Mayfield are taking turns alternating as starters every other day in practice.

As for McCollum, he’s benefited from a few absences by starters Carlton Davis III and Jamel Dean to be able take reps with the starting defense. McCollum is long, fast and athletic, and is playing with more confidence and less hesitancy. He’s still not making enough plays on the ball in practice, but the coaches feel that will come in time as his prior hesitancy wanes as he gains experience.

With Davis and Dean struggling to play all 17 games, it’s a safe bet that we’ll see McCollum in the starting lineup at some point in 2023. The Bucs hope he can continue to improve and develop into at least a competent starter.

FAB 5. John Wolford Is Quite A Competent No. 3 QB

The Bucs’ quarterback room got considerably younger and shorter this offseason. Gone is 45-year old Tom Brady, and 33-year old backups Blaine Gabbert and Ryan Griffin. Brady is 6-foot-5 and both Gabbert and Griffin are 6-foot-4.

Tampa Bay replaced them with 28-year old Baker Mayfield, who is competing for the starting job, and 27-year old John Wolford, who will likely wind up on the practice squad as the No. 3 QB. Mayfield is 6-foot-1, while Wolford is just under 6-feet tall. Mayfield is battling resident giant Kyle Trask, who stands 6-foot-5, and is just 25 years old.

Gone are the days of the tall, big-bodied pocket passers for Bruce Arians’ vertical-based passing game. The pocket moves in Dave Canales’ new horizontal-based attack where mobility is favored at the quarterback position. Mayfield can scoot, and certainly looks like a great fit. Meanwhile, a slimmer, trimmer Trask has proven to have enough mobility to execute in the Bucs’ new offense.

But through the first two open OTAs, Wolford has been quite a surprise. It’s not uncommon for there to be a steep drop off in talent from the backup quarterback to the third-stringer. In Wolford’s case, it doesn’t appear like he’s too far off from Mayfield and Trask in terms of talent and functionality in Canales’ offense.

That’s not a knock on Mayfield and Trask. It’s a credit to Wolford, who may end up being a sneaky good No. 3 QB in Tampa Bay. Of course, the Bucs hope he never sees the field because that would mean that Mayfield and Trask were ultimately ineffective or injured.

Wolford has a few years worth of experience in the Rams offense, which is similar to the Seahawks-based scheme Canales brought from Seattle. Seahawks offensive coordinator Shane Waldron came from the Sean McVay system in L.A., so that’s the connection.

The Wake Forest product ended Tuesday’s OTA on a high note with a pair of red zone touchdowns. The first was an accurate and low laser strike to rookie Trey Palmer just past the goal line. The second was a perfectly placed jump ball in the back left corner of the end zone that allowed Kaylon Geiger to go up and get it over a pair of reserve defensive backs.

It’s early, but it looks like Wolford may be an upgrade over Griffin, the Bucs’ long-time third-string signal caller.

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