The Conundrum Of Finding An Edge Rusher
January 13th, 2026
Downside of career?
Teams don’t let good edge rushers in there prime walk away — except the Bucs back about 13 years ago when they let Michael Bennett walk away for no good reason.
Joe was looking at the list of potential free agents at edge rush and for the Bucs to get one of these guys, Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht would have to go against every fiber of his body.
Licht is no big fan of getting edge rushers pushing or beyond 30, though he did just that 10 months ago. The data is strong that they’ve seen better days.
And no, drafting a guy is a waste for 2026. Bucs coach Todd Bowles’ next rookie edge rusher he develops into a double-digit sack guy will be his first. There’s no way the Bucs should light a valuable draft pick on fire.
Of the top edge rushers who may become free agents, many are either over 30, injury-prone or are on the downside of their careers.
Trey Hendrickson, 31, for example, had but four sacks last year because he was injured. Khalil Mack had but 5.5 sacks and is pushing 35. Joey Bosa is a walking injury report.
Malcolm Koonce had 4.5 sacks this season and he will be 28 in June. Joe is confident he might pull in good cash because he had eight sacks in 2023 and missed 2024 due to injury. Not exactly an inspiring option for the Bucs.
Aside from trading for an edge rusher, there just isn’t a potential savior out there.
Can there be some way Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht can recapture his magic from the spring of 2018 when he stole Jason Pierre-Paul for a measly third-round pick?
January 13th, 2026 at 4:12 am
Jason Licht is the GM.
That’s the problem.
January 13th, 2026 at 4:15 am
Odafe Oweh and Jaelen Phillips also FA options.
January 13th, 2026 at 4:26 am
While I agree completely that there’s little chance Todd develops one, there doesn’t seem to be much logic in kneecapping your GM by taking positional options away from him in the draft. Some of the draft ‘gurus’ if you believe in that sort of thing, say this draft is very deep with edge talent. If, as reports suggest, the glazers said no to Harbaugh because they believe in Jason, you can’t just take those players off the board because he hasn’t hit on one yet, as it stands to reason he’ll be back again in ‘27 even if/when bowles is let go.
If the next great prospect is staring us in the face at whatever portion, we can’t just say no because we haven’t been successful yet at it.
January 13th, 2026 at 4:40 am
Who signing FAs & pass rushers? The Bucs? Even if they did it probably won’t matter because they’re just gonna be dropping out a bunch because nothing’s gonna change with him. He’s gonna want to be involved in every single thing instead of just letting somebody else change it
January 13th, 2026 at 5:08 am
Good edges rarely fall in the draft. In the last 5 years, not ONE Edge rusher has been drafted outside the top 5 has produced either a pro bowl or an 8 sack season.
Meaning in order to pickup someone who really made a difference, we had to trade up multiple firsts and gamble.
The closest is Kwity Paye in 2020, who had 8 one year, but just 31 career sacks in 6 years. I’d rather we had Wirfs.
We did draft a guy with 7 (YaYa) in the 3rd round, so that’s pretty good value. Yes JTS didn’t pan out but without trading up and gambling away multiple first rounders, nobody has made a huge difference so far. Have been plenty of busts though.
Really not sure what you guys expect Jason Licht to do? Smooth talk the Lions into just letting us have Aiden Hutchinson because pretty please?
Also, isn’t this the same blog that was pounding the table for Hasaan Reddick 2 years ago? To trade away a 3rd and give him a big contract? How would we look now if we never drafted Tykee Smith AND gave Reddick a bunch of guaranteed cash the past 2 years?
For the first time in 5 years Licht has a pick inside the top 20. We’ve drafted 3 players (Spence, JTS, and Yaya) in the top 3 rounds, we’re 1-for-3 which is a small sample size. And we haven’t drafted an edge that high ever under Licht. So let’s see what happens before despairing over Licht drafting an edge.
January 13th, 2026 at 5:34 am
Gotta keeps swinging in the draft and you can’t look back or worry about the HC – the success of the team is Todd’s problem Jason has to focus on team building and have a gamblers mentality
They have to do what ATL did and trade up – Bailey would be my target I think he’s Von Miller – 15+2nd to get into top 10 or 15+3rd but u have to jump DAL who is absolutely seeking to redeem the Micah trade
Take the best ILB next (Hill/Rodriguez/CJ there’s a bunch -and flood the EDGE/front 7 position (Romelo height/masedoor/the MI edge etc) –
Also need one of Landman/Ellis/Lloyd/Quey Walker from FA
“Vos” needs to be relegated to ST & spot duty – Yaya should be edge 3, Walker should be 4 Nelson 5 Braswell ST or scratch
January 13th, 2026 at 6:10 am
Need a new defense more than an edge rusher. Both would be nice, but I saw a real defense last night in Pittsburg. The Bucs don’t have one. It was nice to see last night what a team’s defense should look like with a defensive head coach. Same can be said for the Seahawks. Kind of ironic we beat both those teams this year on the road. Seems like 10 years ago now. My guess those wins along with beating SF went a long way at retaining Bowles. I think the Glazers are chasing fools gold, but we’ll see. It’s going to take more than an edge rusher to right this ship.
January 13th, 2026 at 6:16 am
Bucs fans should be praying for a new owner, so a real coach could be hired.
January 13th, 2026 at 6:24 am
Not a conundrum. Jason Licht is way overrated by fans and local media who refuse to see that he sucks at evaluating talent. You can throw out the names of a few good players but the majority of players are just okay to straight busts. Lots of high draft capital busts.
Licht is the man in charge and he is not being held accountable.
January 13th, 2026 at 6:34 am
I don’t think we need elite edge rushers, nor do we need trade up to get one. We need at least 2 more Yaya Diaby types. 7 to 8 sacks, maybe 10 sacks per season and the ability to create pressure. Then we ensure we have elite playmaking ability at ILB. This combo, with depth will give us a chance to get off more on third downs.
@JBF. Dude you’ve been beating the Michael Bennett drum EVERY chance you get. We always let him walk for no reason, again context is important when we discuss who Bennett was, and/or the personality he was. Bennett was a guy of circumstance, he played up when he went to Seattle. He never had a 10-sack season in Tampa, in fact his numbers for the 4 years he was with us was 1-1-4-9. Pretty modest when it came to producing sacks. Not until his 7th season on an elite defense would he have his ONLY 10 sack season. And NO, he would not have stayed in Tampa for the $6M he signed to go to Seattle.
January 13th, 2026 at 6:34 am
“”Need a new defense more than an edge rusher. Both would be nice, but I saw a real defense last night in Pittsburg.””
That’s exactly right. Virtually every game since the bye it looked like our entire defense, and offense for that matter were all on Xanex. No fire. No enthusiasm.
Just missed tackles, opposing QB’s clean uniforms and horrendous pass coverage. With the bottom 5 worst defensive statistics in virtually every single category we have a HC/DC coming back who on any other team in the universe is fired the millisecond after the last game. Sickening. Just sickening.
January 13th, 2026 at 6:36 am
Finding edge rushers is beyond scientific. How do you measure intangibles. Jason Licht is right about aging edge rushers. They don’t age well like fine wine. They are just old and barely holding on at the cliffs edge.
Perier Paul was the exception. I can’t recall anyone like him.
You have to keep swinging for the fences.
January 13th, 2026 at 6:42 am
Spot on Joe.
Look back to 2019…..
Shaq had 5.5 sacks in Denver his rookie year.
He was not a regular starter and over the next 3 years he had 1.5, 4 and 3 sacks.
He was undrafted.
He was 26 yrs old when the Bucs signed him.
An incredible signing.
What did the front office see when they put that D line together (JPP was 29 and Suh was 30).
Whatever it was, we need that again.
I’ve soured a bit on the draft because our track record sucks and we don’t develop anyone. Now with the NIL money and the portal, most of today’s 1st rounders (all millionaires) come into the league with a warped sense of reality. Imho
January 13th, 2026 at 6:50 am
This year, the draft is the only real way to get anything that might be close to a viable edge rusher. That, or wait for a losing team trying to unload a final year contract midseason during the trade deadline. Sorry, Joe.
January 13th, 2026 at 6:52 am
I’d be in favor of drafting a beast at Right Tackle and at least making our front three formidable.
January 13th, 2026 at 6:57 am
Sounds like a coaching and GM problem. Still here?
January 13th, 2026 at 7:09 am
The BIGGEST conundrum is how to win with
The Glazers White Guilt
Jason and Bruce looking out for their jobs first and foremost
How Todd Bowels is someone going to become a 2026 NFL Head coach
Folks it the same old same old
The Beating Will Continue Until the Morale Improves
January 13th, 2026 at 7:18 am
Over the Bowles’ years I’ve loved analyzing his defenses (to the degree that I could based on limited data). His most fascinating year was actually his first … 2019. Oh ya we ended the season 7-9 and the defense was charged with surrendering 449 points (ranked #29); our Run Defense ranked #1 but our Pass Defense ranked #30. Sound familiar? If you look beneath all that though there were some fascinating things happening.
For starters, our defense had Jameis working against them. Jameis threw 30 INTs that year, and the team also fumbled 22 times & lost 11 of those. Those 41 giveaways resulted in 7 Pick-6 (for 48 points while our defense sat on the bench) plus numerous short fields that the defense had to contend with (and gave up FGs on some of those). That 2019 defense IOW was in its’ first year & had a LOT to deal with. But in the final analysis it was about as productive as this year’s defense (gave up around 400 points itself in 16 games).
One of the key reasons IMO is that they had a lot of new Bucs trying to learn a new defense (as well as contend with Jameis’ miscues). But many of those new guys were actually veterans; and very good veterans (Suh, Shaq, etc). But look at the construction of that defense plus the number of def snaps they played, then against their productivity, and something interesting pops up …
o Interior DLine: Suh (874), Vea (749), Gholston (493), RNR (293), Beau Allen (179), O’Connor (26), Daniels (3)
o OLBs: Shaq (889), Nassib (630), JPP (586), Nelson (153)
o ILBs: LVD (1124), Devin White (826), Minter (275), Acho (38), Bond (31), Bucannon (8), Dawkins (4), Cichy (1)
o CBs: Davis (934), SMB (686), Hargreaves (580), Dean (370), MJ Stewart (314), Ryan Smith (50), Wilkins (12)
o Safety: Whitehead (919), Adams (616), Edwards (614), Darian Stewart (170)
Now look at the sacks (47 total) & pressures (186 total), plus blitzes (613 total … most of any Bowles’ year), of each of those position groups:
o Interior DLine: Sacks – 6.5 … Pressures – 63 … Blitz – 9
o OLBs: Sacks – 34 … Pressures – 92 … Blitz – 292
o ILBs: Sacks – 4.5 … Pressures – 24 … Blitz – 194
o CBs: Sacks – 1 … Pressures – 2 … Blitz – 35
o Safety: Sacks – 1 … Pressures – 5 … Blitz – 83
What fascinates me is that our OLBs actually led the team in sacking the opposing QBs (OLBs got 72% of the sacks & 50% of the pressures, while doing about 48% of the blitzing). IOW, Todd used them a lot to actually rush the passer it looks like. And low & behold, they produced.
What helped tremendously though I’m sure is that the interior DLine was ‘beefy’ (Vea – 347; Suh – 313; RNR – 305; Allen – 327; O’Connor – 300; Gholston – 281). They didn’t get huge numbers of sacks (6.5), but they did get a LOT of pressures (63 representing one-third of the total team pressures).
Ironically though, if you evaluate the def snaps, most of the time it WASN’T a 3-4 defense. In roughly 75% of the def snaps we only had TWO NT/DTs on the field, plus 2 ILBs and 2 OLBs, plus 3 CBs & 2 Safeties. We played Nickel a BUNCH. Bucs DLine was still able to get good interior pressure with only 2 DLinemen because of the quality (and size) of our DLinemen. BTW, our defense was on the field for 1130 def plays that year. Our DLine, total, got 2,617 def snaps total … indicating that we averaged only 2 DLinemen out there in about 75% of the snaps.
The irony to me is that our Pass Defense was so bad playing with FIVE defensive backs, blitzing a LOT, and getting good sacks & pressures from the DLinemen & the OLBs. But that’s continued every year but one (2022) since Todd Bowles has been here. The ILBs, CB & Safeties had over 50% of the blitzes (312 blitzes), yet their ‘productivity’ (6.5 sacks & 31 pressures) was marginal.
January 13th, 2026 at 7:41 am
One thing I noticed is, all the top edge rushers the Bucs have had over the past 10 or so years were all brought in through free agency, from Rice to Barrett. My question, is this a development problem or just plain bad drafting. It’s a know fact that the last few edges rusher the Bucs have drafted, didn’t do well in Tampa and is not doing any better elsewhere. Is this a clue?
January 13th, 2026 at 7:42 am
“ What helped tremendously though I’m sure is that the interior DLine was ‘beefy’.”
Suh & Vita were enough inside to occupy at least 3 OLmen snap to snap on a given rep. Gave JPP & Shaq plenty of 1on1s in pass rush opportunities whether we rushed down hill, or played some stunt games.
We’ve missed that in the middle imo, we’ve got a talent in Kancey but even going back to Bowles days in NY with Mo Wilkerson, Sheldon Richardson & Leonard Williams inside. Before that in AZ, he had guys like Calais Campbell, Darnell Dockett, & Tommy Kelly inside making optimizing the jobs of our OLBs.
And that’s is why I’m going to advocate for drafting Landon Robinson until the draft comes. Even a player like Elijah Simmons who flashed a few times, we need space eaters to start putting interior OLs in a blender again. Not just rep to rep either, I’m talking 60 minutes of misery and no answers.
Too bad we acted so late, I think Suh himself just took a job coaching lol that’s the types of coach we need to bring in imo
January 13th, 2026 at 7:55 am
Odafe Oweh is the best fit for us in free agency. 17.5 sacks in his last two seasons plus three against the Patriots in the wild card game at the weekend. 27 years old, no injury history.
January 13th, 2026 at 8:25 am
Outside of picking Leroy No. 1 overall, this team has been abysmal drafting pass rushers. Its not just Jason L. They all have been HORRID for 50 years. You could look at this one of two ways – best to make a trade or go after the top FA pass rushers.
Since picking #63 Bucs have spent 20 picks on 1st or 2nd round pass rushers.
Here are some names from the past that kept other team’s offensive coordinators up at night in fear –
Booker Reese, Broderick Thomas, Keith McCants, Eric Curry, Noah Spence, Keith Browner, Winston Moss, Regan Upshaw, Marcus Jones, Gaines Adams, Adrian Clayborn, DaQuan Bowers, JTS and our current turds – Hall, Braswell and Kancey. Now Kancey can play when he’s actually not hurt. Of course Hugh Green was a good player for Bucs for sure. Outside of LRS, Green the Bucs drafting pass rushers would scare me – we will be in same boat down the line.
Better suited to trade (or sign FA) for KNOWN commodity based on history. But of course JL will take a swing or two in May with the draft.
January 13th, 2026 at 8:33 am
Picking at #20+ every year, you aren’t LIKELY to find a good edge rusher
January 13th, 2026 at 8:41 am
its like trying to sign tom brady. until it is actually possible, it really isnt worth chasing
January 13th, 2026 at 8:49 am
While Licht is ultimately responsible for the draft picks, you can bet Bowles and his defensive staff are very involved too. Remember how excited Larry Foote was about drafting David Walker? So Bowles and Licht are evaluating defensive players together, especially high draft picks. I don’t trust Bowles to evaluate and develop edge players and DL players.
Joe (Lee) is obsessed with edge players, but DL pressure in QB’s face is very important to force bad throws and picks, while also driving the QB into the edge players. The loss of Suh is underappreciated. The platooning of Vita is not helping either.
January 13th, 2026 at 8:57 am
Warren Brooks Lynch … Personally I’d like to see us go back to the 4-3 defense. I’d keep Vita Vea (347 lbs) but pair him inside with a monster DT who could also play NT (someone like Ohio State’s Kayden McDonald (6’3″ & 326 lbs). I’d certainly keep YaYa Diaby (6’4″ & 270 lbs) as 1 of our DEs, but also move Calijah Kancey (6′ & 280 lbs) to DE.
Obviously we need all new LBs. Major problem. I’d draft 1 but try to get 2 starters via free agency. We’ve got similar problems at CB IMO; I’m not a huge advocate for starting either McCollum or Morrison. But who knows, maybe in a 4-3 with different coaching one or bothh might turn out to be beasts.
January 13th, 2026 at 9:05 am
The type of player should dictate what scheme you run, if this year has stand out backers then draft them and build the team around them, look at Houston. You can’t force the situation. The Bucs have been shy on talent to get the job done and the NFL has changed into more of a passing league but you still have to account for the run with read and react. The NFL has morphed more to a college type of game because of the players coming out and the rules changes. Depending on how they work it the Bucs can come out with 3 really really good players on defense with the first 3 picks but then the coaching has to use them properly. And even with a 3/4 or 4/3 you are still going to have 4 guys rush the QB, unless it’s a blitz, it’s just that the 3/4 is designed to disguise who those 4 will be. I may even move Kancy out wide and let Roberts take his spot.
January 13th, 2026 at 9:11 am
This team got way more problems than an edge rush that’s been non existent forever Linebackers are the biggest need right now And since Toilet Bowels defense is so complicated to understand WE ARE SCRWED We got no rush whatsoever No ILB’s or OLB’s McCollum can’t cover a wall because he’s bored FJK We’re gonna be ok because Dennis and Braswell gonna step up just like Hall and JTS did ABSOLUTE SLAP DIRECTLY IN THE FANS FACES
January 13th, 2026 at 9:16 am
Theres no point in drafting or paying a FA edge. They’re dropped into coverage far too often.
As always, the problem is Bowles and his system.
January 13th, 2026 at 9:17 am
I agree with WM… way too many holes. Honestly, D needs complete overhaul because we need multiple guys at all three levels. Will be very difficult to solve in one off-season. At this pt I would focus on FRONT 7.
January 13th, 2026 at 9:30 am
When we get a HC/DC that knows what to do with an edge rusher wake me up.
Bowles has proven he’s incapable of coaching and developing players for this role.
But if you have extra food in the buffet line, he’s your guy.
I can’t wait to hear him say just gotta get better after every loss in 2026.
Who needs wins when you have this culture. It’s breathtaking.
January 13th, 2026 at 9:38 am
This is the problem with teams having limited success, like the Bucs. The quality edge rushers are being drafted top 5. Not sure the last time we drafted even in the top 10. Licht has taken a flyer on players, but no diamonds in the rough. The Texans have probably 10 top 5 players, and it shows.
January 13th, 2026 at 10:17 am
Zoocomics got it right – we don’t need a super-star edge rusher. Just another 1-2 guys like Diaby who can put in the work and get 5-7 sacks (each) per year. And a complete revamp of the Inside LBs.
The secondary works better when there is no easy dump off if the pressure builds. But since our LBs cannot cover anyone, ever…
Defense is a TEAM sport… and right now no pressure on QB and no cover in the middle is killing us. Does not help that we have at least one brain fart on deep coverage every game. Add in poor field position because we cannot tackle on kickoffs and punts. Recipe for disaster.
January 13th, 2026 at 10:32 am
We shall see. I have no confidence in my Bucs. None whatsoever. The Glazers have shown us they are about Profits. They could care less if greatness is achieved. Both Licht and Bowles should have been dismissed. Now sit back and watch the Carolina Panthers leap frog the division next year. Bowles probalem is he thinks he is a great DC. He is not. He needs to hire one. Buit he Won’t. Look for a 9-8 or 8-9 season next year. You Gotta Wanna Be Great fellow Buc fans. We just don’t have that instinct.
January 13th, 2026 at 10:37 am
Thinking that any team would give away its young edge rusher to trade or free agency is fantasy football.
You have to draft one. You can’t target a miracle signing like Shaq or JPP. Those come along very infrequently.
January 13th, 2026 at 10:42 am
Todd doesn’t care about an edge rusher how many times does he have to tell you for it to stick.
January 13th, 2026 at 10:45 am
Todd Monken huh, I don’t think he’s been the problem in Baltimore has he ?? Might be nice to go with him and see. Unless McDaniel is the one and he’s just making rounds. This has got to be driving Mayfield a little crazy. Is it to be 11? And this one might not want to run any of our schoolyard plays. Haha.
January 13th, 2026 at 10:45 am
@defense rules
We spent 56% of our total snaps in Nickel last year.
That’s up from 38% of the time in 2024
Which was also up from just a usage rate of 24% in 2023.
There’s really no sign or reason that usage rate falls given the styles of offense being used widespread(pun intended) around the league on avg. Teams are finding ways to always have 3 WRs on the field. Whether it be in the slot, bunched into the box with the OL, or even in the backfield like the Rams.
We use 4-man fronts plenty. A lot of the times early downs you’ll see those 5 human fronts, where either OLB has the option to go, cover or zone up. So it’ll look like a 5-2 pre snap, but could function by assignment like a 3/4/5-man rush with the blitz built/in or not.
Why I mentioned the Vea+Suh combo, simple math and just watching them together tells you on any snap they’re occupying at least 3 OLmen combine. Those flashes where Shaq/JPP used to either beat his 1on1 or get a flash free run on a sting because Suh is bullying guys, we miss that dearly. Not so much in the sack accumulation aspect, but more so ratcheting up pressure on demand like we used to at one point.
Ranch, Victorian, or Cape it’s still a house and, I don’t think our defense suffers from design flaws more than I think a big fix can be finding more talented tenants for that house.
Landon Robinson ‘26 him on the inside for us, whether it be early downs paired with Vea or spelling him to the right of Kancey. Maaaaaaaaaan
January 13th, 2026 at 11:24 am
I am with “AlstottNumber! !” here. We gotta coach it better right Todd?
Maybe cut back and have only 5 double cheeseburgers for lunch dude. You can spend the extra non eating time trying to figure out how to motivate your players and fix that dumpster fire scheme that you are running. Idiot.
January 13th, 2026 at 12:23 pm
Warren Brooks Lynch … ‘We use 4-man fronts plenty’.
I don’t disagree, but it’s who the 4-man front consists of. Like 70-75% of the time, we only had 2 DTs out there … our DLinemen (2019) only got 2,617 def snaps total in 2019 (2 DLinemen every play would’ve gotten 2,260 def snaps that season, and 3 would’ve gotten 3,390 def snaps). Plus we had 2 of our OLBs it looks like for virtually every play. IOW our fronts are very light.
January 13th, 2026 at 12:30 pm
What perplexes ME is the Niners have the WORST pass rush on the NFL, yet their defense is SOOO better than ours, completely stymied the Eagles
January 13th, 2026 at 12:36 pm
Can anyone say Josh Sweat…. Where was the all world GM Light on Josh Sweat. Under 30 years of age, signed for$41M guarantee and had 12 sacks for Cards in his first year.
SMH, what is the excuse on this one Joe. You seem to like to throw shade for AC/DC loving Ring of Honor Licht, when this guy signs the wrong DE out of Philadelphia looking for a deal.
January 13th, 2026 at 1:05 pm
@DR – totally agree with both the Kancey to DE and getting a Vea clone for tackle. The delusion Kancey was the next Aaron Donald has been disproved. He does not hold up against the big boys and could use his speed outside. Just might reduce his injury issue also. We are way too light in the middle of the line and have no ILBs with any size either. The draft/FA period has to net us a sold DT and 3 LB. There are 3 or 4 good LB in FA and a good draft class.
Licht can’t afford to screw this up this year. We needed the LBs and DT last draft. Egbuka was a luxury we couldn’t afford. Oh yah, if we’re dreaming, we need a quality guard while they’re at it. Sure would be nice to have a competent DC and OC too. Go Bucs!
January 14th, 2026 at 1:58 pm
He could sign Miles Garrett and Micah Parsons and the pass rush problems would continue. The problem is Todd GTFOoTB Bowles. His defense is so abstract hlol