YaYa Diaby Still A Focus Of Offenses
September 12th, 2025
Calijah Kancey celebrates with YaYa Diaby after the Bucs’ outside linebacker tackled Atlanta QB Michael Penix.
Last year Joe felt bad for YaYa Diaby. All offenses had to do was take out YaYa and they knew the Bucs more often than not wouldn’t have an edge rush.
Yeah, Anthony Nelson would make some plays. But other than Nelson, YaYa got no help from the other side of the defense.
One reason Joe was so stoked about the addition of Haason Reddick was it meant offenses could no longer afford to focus so much attention and energy on YaYa. Now, offenses had to account for Vita Vea, Calijah Kancey, Reddick and YaYa.
Someone surely wouldn’t be getting double-teamed.
Joe asked YaYa yesterday if he saw less attention from the Dixie Chicks because of Reddick’s presence. YaYa didn’t feel change.
“I wouldn’t say that, man,” YaYa said about potentially getting less blockers keying on him. “They are still coming. It got to a point [Sunday] where I was getting chipped [on] back-to-back-to-back-to-back plays.
“So I feel like [offenses], they’re still all focusing on me.”
YaYa told Joe not to be confused; he is not complaining. He said he just has to find a way to do his job and that’s putting quarterbacks on the ground no matter what offenses throw at him.
“You know, I just gotta find a way to get to that quarterback and actually capitalize,” YaYa said.
Two quarterback hits were credited to YaYa on Sunday. For the horseshoes and hand grenades crowd, the PFF tribe claims YaYa had four quarterback pressures.
September 12th, 2025 at 6:57 am
The defensive line was getting after Penix all day he couldn’t take any deep shots. The sacks will come.
September 12th, 2025 at 6:57 am
Have to say I watched the Packers game last night Joe. I watched Daniels (Washington QB) getting hurried to the nth degree. He wasn’t getting sacked but man the pressure was on when he dropped back. And the Packers DLine kept him contained when he would try to run. I think he averaged less than 3 yards a run. Probably his toughest game of his career. It was defensive pressure, not sacks, just relentless pressure all night long. I love sacks. But pressure, unrelenting pressure from every direction, will suit me just fine.
September 12th, 2025 at 7:10 am
Ya Ya had the defense’s first sack of the day until Dean’s facemask wiped it off the stat sheet.
September 12th, 2025 at 7:15 am
Yaya does not have it. It’s time to recognize it.
September 12th, 2025 at 7:16 am
Neither does SirVocea.
September 12th, 2025 at 7:23 am
Guys gotta finish the play they missed like 4 sacks
September 12th, 2025 at 7:23 am
Seemed like Packers brought 5 or more guys all game long last night.
Just a wonderful defensive effort. Not sure we have the horses they do — besides Micah, the rest of those guys came at Daniels.
I think they were credited with 24 pressures last night on something like 52 Washington drop backs. Michah had 6 pressures so that was 18 pressures for the rest of the guys.
September 12th, 2025 at 7:39 am
@ModHairKen,
I don’t believe it’s fair to judge YaYa on a single game, especially on the first game of the season when the team had no tape on the Falcons offense from this season.
But if you want to judge him, he did do what he needed to get a great sack in the game. The reason it didn’t count had nothing to do with YaYa. I’m confident he’ll be better this year.
September 12th, 2025 at 8:21 am
Sorry. YaYa is solidifying himself as mostly hype.
September 12th, 2025 at 8:45 am
Being a realist Diaby is great against run and a 6 sack guy at best
September 12th, 2025 at 8:45 am
Jose, how many sacks would be a good to very good year for us? 50? We will play over 1000 snaps on defense with at least 500 pass plays. You want to bank your defense’s season on 50 plays. Jose, this makes me question what football games you actually watch. If the defense is successful 10% of the time we win everything! Someone out there put together a video about Reddick during the game and pressure Definitely affected Penix. To think pressure is useless is about as valid as proclaiming Johnny Football is the second coming of John Elway.
September 12th, 2025 at 8:47 am
I, for one, have been asking for improved coverage for a few years since WR have been running free in the secondary since ’22. Hopefully we will see more of that this year.
September 12th, 2025 at 8:56 am
Ya Ya is a going to be a star for us. You might remember the “Crane”
Greg Spires, not a household name but surely helped Simeon back in the day. There was no place to run, no place to hide. Ya Ya looks like he’s packed a few more pounds of muscle this year.
Let’s watch the game Monday night, I’m calling for 3 sacks and one will be Ya Ya’s.
September 12th, 2025 at 9:12 am
Jack to your point about pressures — last night Green Bay had 24 pressures and 4 sacks.
I am with you. The other 20 pressures counted for a lot in that game — some act on this site that somehow those 20 pressures are somehow a non-important stat.
IMO that is ridiculous.
September 12th, 2025 at 9:25 am
Rooting for Yaya. Long season ahead. Yaya will get it done.
September 12th, 2025 at 9:25 am
Certainly pressure matters, said it before. But it does depend on what the offense is doing, how are they trying to negate it, what plays are they running? Atlanta had to get the ball out quick all game, Penix was throwing from a crowded room all game but they were quick hitters or he would have been down several times. Lot of holding going on too that wasn’t called but whatever. He also swung the ball out to the backs quite a bit to get them in space and looked to be the only ones open at times. From the little I watched GB/Washington Daniels was intent on letting the play develop and gave the rushers time to get there and close the escape gaps which they did very well.
September 12th, 2025 at 11:06 am
Sacks are great, especially when they end a drive like Reddick’s did against the Falcons. But intense pressure will negatively impact ANY QB. It’s how the Bucs and Eagles beat Mahomes and the Chiefs in their Super Bowls. It wasn’t just sacks. The Bucs only got 3 against Mahomes in that game, but he was running for his life and got hit 10 times.
September 12th, 2025 at 11:29 am
Rooting for YaYa and SVD MN. Defensive pressures may not be considered a big deal by some, but they are what determines a successful Defense. Common sense. A sack or turnover won’t happen if there’s no pressure to blow the Offensive concentration up. Did the Pack get any TOs last night? Wonder why? That DC Offense sure isn’t a cupcake.
September 12th, 2025 at 1:19 pm
The whole point of pressure is to disrupt the offenses ability to function as they’d like. I don’t care if it results in throwing off timing, forcing a check down, tipped pass, a sack or anything else, but I would love to see our rate of pressure to gradually improve with time. Agree with those who’ve already stated that pressure works with more than just sacking the QB and can effect a play without laying a finger in the signal caller.
September 12th, 2025 at 2:04 pm
Yaya will be fine… Wouldn’t be shocked if he notched a couple of sacks against Houston.
Their QB is not mobile at all.
September 12th, 2025 at 3:05 pm
Ken, if not for the penalty against Dean, Yaya would have the same number of sacks as Reddick and would be trending towards 17 for the year.
September 12th, 2025 at 4:06 pm
Yaya had a sack taken off the board by an unrelated penalty, and watching some ALL22, he’s correct, Atlanta was using their backs to chip him, while leaving Reddick to get some one-on-one blocking, and Reddick, in the limited plays I’ve watched, was getting really good pressure.
Again, I didn’t watch a ton of plays, but in the ones I saw, the defense did in fact look more aggressive than what you’d see in general last year, and they were getting good pressure, even more than it appeared watching it live.
Unfortunately, watching it also makes me think even more so that Penix is going to be a really good QB. He just stood in there, make quick accurate throws, and just looks like a vet, a good one, but it’s just his 4th game starting. That’s not good for the Bucs.
September 12th, 2025 at 4:35 pm
“ He just stood in there, make quick accurate throws, and just looks like a vet, a good one, but it’s just his 4th game starting”
To be fair he did spend 12 years in college.
September 12th, 2025 at 4:48 pm
Looks like…same ol same ol defense! I think if Atlanta’s kisker hadn’t missed the kick, they probably would have won the game! Defense can’t stop anyone in the 4th quarter
September 12th, 2025 at 4:53 pm
Joe wrote an article about how raheem said that atlanta could hotbbaker but couldn’t get him down.
Obviously staying up right is a skill, which means taking qbs down instead of just hitting them is a skill too.
Maybe ya ya just doesnt have that talent. He is a good athlete, now I know why he didnt attract a lot of draft capital.even though he is more talented than braswell
September 12th, 2025 at 5:46 pm
UGotRobbed “same ol same ol defense”. The defense made the game winning plays. Our team kneel down on final offensive play. That’s a huge difference.
September 12th, 2025 at 5:46 pm
Give it up YaYa is a bum ain’t no get good for him. Dude is not a pass rusher lol how many more yrs will we give him lol
September 12th, 2025 at 6:37 pm
Jmarkbuc Says:
September 12th, 2025 at 4:35 pm
“ He just stood in there, make quick accurate throws, and just looks like a vet, a good one, but it’s just his 4th game starting”
To be fair he did spend 12 years in college.
———–
Yeah, but I stilled hoped he’d be a bust and set them back the same way Young has set back the Panthers. The guy looks like a seasoned vet already, and is only going to improve – that stinks for Tampa if they got their new, more mobile, Matt Ryan.
September 13th, 2025 at 6:18 am
JTS, YaYa, Braswell. Premium pick that are not premium players.
September 15th, 2025 at 9:25 pm
Put White in
September 15th, 2025 at 9:30 pm
I recall a camp note from Joe foreshadowing that Baker fumble