Hopefully, Bucs Don’t Bank On Hope (Once Again)
March 3rd, 2026
Hope again.
Look, Joe gets how NFL suits like to gloss their homegrown talent. It’s like an Iowa farmer bragging about how many bushel an acre his corn crop produced.
The Bucs put a lot of work into research and scouting, as most teams do. So Joe gets why a team would be giddy about a player they *think* may turn into something. There’s a lot of sweat equity involved.
Joe heard a whole lot of happy talk last week in Indianapolis about David Walker, last year’s fourth-round pick who blew his knee out last July. Two words went through Joe’s head every time he saw someone with the Bucs beam after mentioning Walker’s name.
Slow down!
Joe sure hopes — there’s that vile word again — Walker turns into something. But here’s the ugly reality: Walker has never played a snap of NFL football.
In fact, Walker never made it past the first padded practice of training camp last summer. He blew out his knee in the very first padded practice.
And when/if he does get on an NFL field, he won’t be playing Southeast Missouri State.
Joe brings all this up because, per well-plugged-in NFL scribe Dan Graziano of ESPN, Licht is looking for an edge rusher right now.
Tampa Bay will look for edge-rush help this offseason. Veteran Haason Reddick sounds unlikely to return, and though the Bucs have high hopes for 2025 fourth-round pick David Walker, who was impressing them last offseason before tearing his ACL at the start of training camp, they’ll be trying to bring in upgrades on the edge.
Enough about hope! A hope is a prayer! It’s wishful thinking. Instead of banking on hope (UH-gen), how about banking on an established NFL resume? You know, like go trade for someone or sign someone you know can get after the quarterback because he has proven it.
(Joe applauds Licht for sticking his neck out, stepping outside his comfort zone last March and signing Haason Reddick. Hey, it didn’t work out. At least Licht *tried* instead of again banking on hope.)
Joe still maintains the franchise turnaround began when Licht stole Jason Pierre-Paul for a third-round pick from the Giants. That began the Bucs’ march to winning the Super Bowl some three years later.
If Licht can do it once, he can do it again.
Yes, Joe wants Walker to be a beastly Pro Bowler. It would be such a cool story and if he did, Joe’s thinking the Bucs could win the NFC South or more.
But banking on a fourth-round pick from Central Arkansas, who unfortunately has never completed even a full NFL padded practice, at the defense’s most important position, seems like a major if not unnecessary reach.
March 3rd, 2026 at 4:02 am
Not arguing with you Joe, just saying..
Maxx Crosby – Selected in the 4th round (106th overall) of the 2019 NFL Draft
March 3rd, 2026 at 5:19 am
We heard the same things about Dennis. When he finally took the field we wished we hadn’t. Braswell, JTS, you trust Licht? He’s welcoming back a washed 36 year old LB coming off knee surgery with open arms. I’m rewatching the season, just finished the Jets game. David had 3 missed tackles. Feel good signing, but he won’t help our team. Walker will be lucky to be have of what YaYa is. Probably be as impact full as Dennis.
March 3rd, 2026 at 5:41 am
We’ll soon see. If they resign Evans and don’t do any contract restructurings, they won’t have the cap to get anything but Licht’s normal bargain basement deals. I don’t mind keeping Evans at a decent price for his part time play. But they need to choose Evans or Godwin. Can’t keep both and do much to fix the defense.
March 3rd, 2026 at 5:53 am
Sign a FA OLB for $10-15M and then draft one with a day 1 or 2 pick.
No trades though – unless the value is high like in the case of JPP for a 3rd….
Can’t let the whiffs of signing Reddick and drafting JTS and Braswell deter you from continuing to take swings at finding the effective starting edge rusher this team needs.
YaYa is solid to good – he needs an equal or better bookend….
OLB and ILB along with depth for NT/DT/OG needs to be the focus of this off season’s acquisitions….. plus a RB, a TE and a CB if White, Otten or Dean don’t get re-signed. We need a decent back-up QB as well…..
March 3rd, 2026 at 6:20 am
Signing Reddick wasn’t about HOPE Joe, it was about taking a very poor RISK & having it blow up in our face. He was never gonna be the answer, despite JL paying him $14 mil. Every other team saw that after his 2024 season, except JL.
Right now Bucs have 5 OLBs under contract: (1) Diaby; (2) Nelson; (3) Braswell; (4) David Walker; (5) Kamara. As a group, they had 1458 def snaps, with Walker & Kamara providing a TOTAL of 5 def snaps last season. Unfortunately those 5 OLBs only got 11 sacks, 27 QB hits, 20 TFLs in 2025. So yes, Bucs NEED 1 more Edge, preferably an experienced Edge to replace Reddick & provide some LEADERSHIP within that young OLB room.
Spotrac shows 79 Edge free agents, of which 60 are UFAs. A total of 21 of those 60 UFAs are over 30, with the majority (39) being under 30. I can see 3 younger OLBs the Bucs might want to focus on:
1 – Odafe Oweh (Chargers … 27 yrs old; 6’5″ & 251 lbs; 4.36 sec 40-yd): Only played about half-season in 2025 with Chargers (traded from Ravens). Rnd 1 pick of Ravens in 2021. Has 30.5 sacks, 79 QB hits, 34 TFL & 176 tackles (118 solo) in 5 years. Market Value: $19.3 mil.
2 – Kwity Paye (Colts … 27 yrs old; 6’3″ & 265 lbs; 4.52 sec 40-yd): Rnd 1 pick of Colts in 2021. Has 30.5 sacks, 50 QB hits, 37 TFL & 209 tackles (123 solo) in 5 years. Market Value: $17.9 mil.
3 – Jaelan Phillips (Eagles … 26 yrs old; 6’5″ & 266 lbs; 4.56 sec 40-yd): Rnd 1 pick of Dolphins in 2021. Only played about half-season in 2025 with Eagles (traded from Dolphins). Has 28 sacks, 68 QB hits, 32 TFL & 205 tackles (119 solo) in 5 years. Market Value: $17.4 mil.)
Yes they’d each cost some big $$$. So did JPP & Shaq.
However, if the Bucs don’t dramatically improve the INTERIOR of our DLine, it won’t matter who we sign for our Edges. It all starts in the trenches, and our interior pass rush sucks. Bucs need to replace BOTH Gaines AND Logan Hall with BEASTS in the trenches, AND move Kancey further outside. No more baby DTs; we need BEASTS with really bad attitudes. Suh was the model, not Gaines, not Hicks, not Swaggy. No more light-weights.
March 3rd, 2026 at 6:38 am
Braswell should be cut in training camp. He’s a boy amongst men. Another brilliant move by the General Gaslighter.
March 3rd, 2026 at 6:52 am
There’s an old saying: “Hope is your worst enemy in the marketplace.”
March 3rd, 2026 at 7:04 am
Khalil Mack had 5.5 sacks and was a difference maker in stopping the run. Plus he missed four games so his production easily could have been better. Mack is ready to go and the lessons an all pro future HOF’er can teach to players like Diaby and Walker are invaluable-SIGN MACK.
March 3rd, 2026 at 7:32 am
Hope? In a Todd Blows defense?
March 3rd, 2026 at 7:33 am
BucU … ‘Braswell should be cut in training camp. He’s a boy amongst men.’
Respectfully disagree. I’m convinced that he’s been misused, and that’s resulted in him not really being given sufficient chances to produce sacks & pressures.
Chris has decent size for an OLB (6’3″ & 255 lbs) and has good speed (4.60 sec in 40-yd). He’s an excellent tackler (only 2 missed tackles in his 2 yrs here, resulting in a 4.0% Missed Tackle Rate), lowest of all our OLBs. But there’s a very good chance Bucs have put him out there mostly in run situations (especially last year), although for us TV viewers it’s impossible to truly tell. However, look at what Chris has produced in 2 years (34 games):
o 2024: 17 games – 329 def snaps – 22 blitzes – 1.5 sacks – 8 QB hits – 1 TFL – 1 FF – 18 tackles (11 solo) – 3 targets – 3 completed – 100% Pass Completions Allowed.
o 2025: 17 games – 283 def snaps – 6 blitzes – 1.0 sacks – 4 QB hits – 4 TFL – 0 FF – 30 tackles (21 solo) – 7 targets – 5 completed – 71.4% Pass Completions Allowed.
So Braswell has dressed for all 34 games over his 2 years with us (excellent availability IOW), but has only gotten on the field for roughly 300 def snaps per year (has played a LOT of S/Ts however). Blitzed a lot his 1st year (22 blitzes); sacks weren’t there (1.5) and his QB hits were decent (8), but his TFLs (1) & tackles (18) were low.
But then something must’ve changed in 2025. He had fewer snaps & blitzed a lot less (only 8); sacks still weren’t there (1.0) and his QB hits dropped (4), but his TFLs quadrupled (to 4) and his tackles almost doubled (to 30). That’s implying to me that he was out there for more Run situations. Still, his Pass Defense opportunities look like they doubled, and his Completions Allowed Percentage (71.4%) was 2nd-lowest to Nelson’s 61.5% .
I’m not at all ready to give up on Chris. With an improved INTERIOR pass rush (ours sucked these past 2 years), both YaYa and Chris will produce considerably more sacks and pressures. Personally I don’t mind that Bowles drops our OLBs back periodically into pass coverage in his 3-4 defense. But I do wish that he’d vastly beef up our interior DLine, use the 4-3 a lot more, and let guys like Diaby & Braswell pass rush a lot more. And oh ya, move Kancey further outside (he’ll be a lot more productive further out IMO).