YaYa Diaby Does Other Things Well
June 19th, 2026
Often around the football.
Bucs outside linebacker YaYa Diaby may not have as many sacks as Joe would like to see. That doesn’t mean YaYa isn’t making plays.
True, he was drafted to get sacks do other things. And YaYa seems to do other things rather well. For example, YaYa often seems to be around the football.
Per the Bucs’ media relations, seven players since 2008 have had 12 or more tackles for loss in each of their first three seasons. They are Maxx Crosby, Aaron Donald, Lavonte David, Khalil Mack, Micah Parsons and J.J. Watt.
Oh, and YaYa.
He’s had 12, 13 and 13 tackles for loss in each season since the Bucs drafted him in 2023.
Now, if someone on the Bucs coaching staff had a revelation about the importance of an edge rusher burying quarterbacks, with the way YaYa excels at other things, the Bucs may have their hands on a special player.
June 19th, 2026 at 9:50 am
YaYa is a good player..very solid…plays hard and he’s consistent…he just needs to work on finishing the play regarding sacks…i think a counter move would help, like a spin move…imo, he hand fights with OTs for a little too long….
would love to re-sign him, but we shouldnt make him the top paid DE lol…
GO BUCS!!!!
June 19th, 2026 at 9:56 am
TFL is a big deal, it’s as good as a sack is but if the offense comes back and is able to convert that into a first down then it’s misleading and a wasted stat and play. All that work to put the offense in a hole just to surrender the first down the next play or 2 plays is just maddening. That has happened way too much over the past 3 years.
June 19th, 2026 at 10:04 am
61
I agree…
far too often Ive seen YaYa get a TFL on 2nd down only to be a step too late on 3rd down which results in a 1st down lol….
maddening indeed lol
GO BUCS!!!!!
June 19th, 2026 at 10:16 am
NFL main website had an article where they picked the best team out of all nfl players and stay under the cap. Yaya was the only bucs player picked on that team.
June 19th, 2026 at 10:16 am
Someone on a Bucs podcast compared YaYa last year to Tom Hanks in Castaway. It sounded about right. I’m not sure if Bain is going to be his Wilson this season or he got rescued and has more help this year. Can’t wait for TC to get a peak at the answer.
June 19th, 2026 at 10:22 am
Got a hunch 2 things will happen this year:
1 – YaYa will have a VERY good year. Not sure if it’ll include him getting double-digit sacks in Bowles’ defense, but it’ll still be a VERY good year.
2 – Odds are great that he won’t be a Buc next season. He’s a beast who can play a high percentage of the def snaps and get much better results elsewhere than he’ll be able to get in this defense.
June 19th, 2026 at 10:40 am
Jack of all trades…Master of NONE!
June 19th, 2026 at 10:54 am
Best thing Ya ya does is dance up and down when he’s a second late for a sack
June 19th, 2026 at 10:57 am
One more season of YaYa feeling almost like he’s all alone out there at times and he may not want to be a Buc anymore. He does right now tho. He’s one of the few who max tries and cares on that defense from last season. He’s stepping up as a Leader while we are looking for new one(s) on defense and wanting to be one. It may not be a bad idea to extend him now. Not saying break the bank or make him highest paid or anything remotely like that, but just a nice suitable extension sooner rather than later.
I like what YaYa brings!
June 19th, 2026 at 11:05 am
DR, I think you may be accurate regarding his departure. Even if he has an average year by the standards he’s set, he’s going to command big edge bucks. And if he can manage double digits this year, which I think is a good possibility if everyone stays healthy, he’s going to be very expensive. The likelihood of us signing Vita and him both is slim.
June 19th, 2026 at 11:20 am
YaYa
June 19th, 2026 at 11:28 am
Steven007 … ‘The likelihood of us signing Vita and him both is slim.’
My gut feel as of now is that expensive old guys will be expendable if we sign Baker to a ‘north of $50 mil contract’. Unfortunately that would probably include both Vea & Godwin. Bucs have to keep getting younger anyways, so why not use our 1st & 2nd Rnd draft picks for 2027 on a NT & WR?
June 19th, 2026 at 11:39 am
Yaya is superior to the Phillips guy who got signed for 4 years at $120 million
June 19th, 2026 at 12:45 pm
He is so close he just needs help on the other side an finally has it with Bain now Yaya should be closer to a 10 Sack guy
June 19th, 2026 at 12:56 pm
Has nothing to do with the article, but could Nick Chubb be signed on a make good contract for RB…. he should not be that expensive!!!
As for the article, I always liked YaYa!!!
June 19th, 2026 at 1:03 pm
TFLs are essentially sacks but the stat includes run plays. It’s absolutely a good sign that he’s up there.
June 19th, 2026 at 1:09 pm
Chubb isn’t needed gainwell is better. Chubb is washed rather see tuck gets what’s left after Bucky and Kenny g get theirs
June 19th, 2026 at 1:19 pm
DR. I can see that happening. I love CG and VV but you can’t pay your QB 50+ M/Y and not turn the roster., Miami’s Ahmad Moten Sr. are two DT the Bucs have got to have their eye on. Every year the draft is stacked with WRs. I trust Licht to find a good CG replacement.
Oregon’s A’Mauri Washington is really special. Bucs fans should familiarize themselves to him.
June 19th, 2026 at 1:32 pm
“Bucs have to keep getting younger anyways”
that includes the QB position…
a younger QB with vets around him sounds/performs better than an old QB with rookies around him
GO BUCS!!!!
June 19th, 2026 at 1:34 pm
If the choice is to sign YaYa long-term or extend Vea ( à la the choice Gruden had of keeping Simeon Rice or Warrick Dunn )…I think I’d choose YaYa. Younger and less injury prone ( so far at least ).
June 19th, 2026 at 2:02 pm
How about letting the year play out before kissing YaYa goodbye? If things go south, Baker might not be resigned, Bowles might be standing in line to collect an unemployment check, and YaYa will get his money.
If we sign Baker to a 50 million—16.6% of the cap contract prior to this season, YaYa will surely be gone and the Bucs Super Bowl chances will be next to nil. As stated yesterday, only one team has won the Lombardi with a cap eating QB above 15% and that’s KC and Mahomes. And they are now suffering the consequences. 10-12% of the cap is doable, with the average SB winning QB sitting at 10% or less.
Hurts was 5.31% when the Eagles won the SB.
Last year Darnold was 4.8% of the cap. Look them all up!
Want to keep YaYa? Keep your QB at 10-12%, preferably under. Pay your impact players and don’t overpay your QB.
Paying your QB 50 mil is akin to a Super Bowl death sentence.
June 19th, 2026 at 2:41 pm
David being on that list speaks to his greatness.
June 19th, 2026 at 3:01 pm
Pay your impact players and don’t overpay your QB.
BINGO!!!!!
GO BUCS!!!!
June 19th, 2026 at 3:11 pm
Yaya needs to just not be in freaking coverage this proves it
June 19th, 2026 at 3:43 pm
El Hefe Bucc Says:
June 19th, 2026 at 3:11 pm
Yaya needs to just not be in freaking coverage this proves it
——————-
How many times in 2025 did Yaya drop in to coverage ?
What were the results ?
Did you see this being a problem or are you just repeating what the poo sniffers have said ?
Just curious bro – if you have a legit point, backed up by data, we’d love to hear it.
Conclusion is Yaya should not drop in coverage. What are the premises that support that conclusion ?
Yaya has been great for us and he should have some help finally. How some people constantly turn positives into negatives boggles the mind 😳
June 19th, 2026 at 3:50 pm
JA I get what you’re saying but I think that’s just because teams only recently started paying their QBs 50+ million. Pretty soon all the teams with franchise QBs will be paying them that kinda money. I doubt that only teams with QBs on rookie deals and journeyman Qbs will be winning all the SBs.
June 19th, 2026 at 4:30 pm
The best sack distribution for the Bucs being able to keep the team together would be a wide distribution of sacks:
OLB – Bain 7, Diaby 7, Muhammad 6, Walker 6, Nelson 4 – OLB 24.
DL – Vea 6, Kancey 6, Robinson 4, Roberts 4, Capehart 4, Nacho 4 – DL 28.
ILB – Anzalone 4, Dennis 4, Trotter 6 – ILB 14.
DB – Scott 4, Parrish 2, McCollum 2, Winfield 4, Smith 2; DB 14.
While the total is an insane 80 team sacks, the individual sacks are not extraordinary for the position or player in most cases.
The point is, trim it down however you like, but keep the distribution spread as wide as possible.
June 19th, 2026 at 4:39 pm
Next year if I had to keep one between Vea and Diaby I would keep Diaby.
June 19th, 2026 at 4:45 pm
I am very exited to see him and Bain together.
Not counting on Kancey for anything.
June 19th, 2026 at 5:20 pm
toopanca … I’m convinced the Bucs will get a LOT more sacks this season, but their ‘average’ under Bowles has been 45.1 sacks per year. In the 2019-2021 timeframe (when we had Suh, Vea, JPP, Shaq) we averaged 47.3 sacks/year, and in 2022-2025 we averaged 43.5 sacks/year (somewhat different talent level?).
Point being: Bowles’ defenses have been relatively consistent when it comes to sacks (except for last year when we dropped to only 37 sacks). Denver Broncos had the most sacks last season (68). Eagles had the most in 2022 (70 sacks), and that was the most since the NFL-AFL merger except for when the 1984 Bears got 72 sacks.
I think that increasing our ‘average’ by 20% would be a major advance for Todd Bowles because of how he uses his defense (and his OLBs in particular). So add another 9 sacks to his 45 sacks average (54 sacks total) & that MIGHT be doable. I say MIGHT because it’s hard for me to envision Todd Bowles compromising on his ‘Stop the Run First’ philosophy (I still think that’s the primary reason our front defenders (including OLBs) don’t get double-digit sacks under Bowles).
Regardless, IF the Bucs can cobble together 54 sacks, we’ll be a Top-10 defense again IMO.
June 19th, 2026 at 5:22 pm
toopanca … I’m convinced the Bucs will get a LOT more sacks this season, but their ‘average’ under Bowles has been 45.1 sacks per year. In the 2019-2021 timeframe (when we had Suh, Vea, JPP, Shaq) we averaged 47.3 sacks/year, and in 2022-2025 we averaged 43.5 sacks/year (somewhat different talent level?).
Point being: Bowles’ defenses have been relatively consistent when it comes to sacks (except for last year when we dropped to only 37 sacks). Denver Broncos had the most sacks last season (68). Eagles had the most in 2022 (70 sacks), and that was the most since the NFL-AFL merger except for when the 1984 Bears got 72 sacks.
June 19th, 2026 at 5:24 pm
I think that increasing our ‘average’ by 20% would be a major advance for Todd Bowles because of how he uses his defense (and his OLBs in particular). So add another 9 sacks to his 45 sacks average (54 sacks total) & that MIGHT be doable. I say MIGHT because it’s hard for me to envision Todd Bowles compromising on his ‘Stop the Run First’ philosophy (I still think that’s the primary reason our front defenders (including OLBs) don’t get double-digit sacks under Bowles).
Regardless, IF the Bucs can cobble together 54 sacks, we’ll be a Top-10 defense again IMO.
June 19th, 2026 at 5:25 pm
Regardless, IF the Bucs can just increase our 45 sack ‘average’ by 20% (9 more sacks for 54 total) we’ll be a Top-10 defense again IMO.
June 19th, 2026 at 6:18 pm
Fire the D coordinator and Ya Ya instantly improves.
June 19th, 2026 at 6:28 pm
The “winning” formula for playoff success — and for Super Bowl wins — is to catch a veteran quarterback in a career slump. Brad Johnson fit that bill; Brady only came here because Belichick thought he was washed up. Manning moved on to make way for a bright new toy. Go down the list and the pattern stands out.
And remember: both Brady and Manning limited their own contracts to let the team pay for other supporting players.
June 19th, 2026 at 6:30 pm
Defense Rules,
I think there is a big chance Vita won’t be resigned next year.
I don’t have ANY fai5h in Walker, b7t I do think we’ll draft a good DT next year.
But I also th8nk that if Bowles is still here, YaYa .ight stay, and if Tomlin is the next coach, YaYa will certainly stay.
June 19th, 2026 at 6:32 pm
I thought Brady decided to leave the Patriots because he wanted to experience another team before retirement.
June 19th, 2026 at 6:47 pm
Or you can have a great D and win with a Dilfer or a Wilson or a Donaldson. Or maybe even a Baker one day. Come on Bowles. Get it done. Go Bucs
June 19th, 2026 at 7:19 pm
YaYa does well on run plays, particularly setting the edge, but he gets pressures, not many sacks. IF IF IF AQM is for real, he should replace YaYa on passing downs.
June 19th, 2026 at 7:39 pm
Part of me thinks Jason would resign YaYa because he drafted him. Then I think of the players that walked everywhere lately and I’m just not sure. He’s been reliable and impactful, would love to keep him. I like him better than JTS who I read retired.
June 19th, 2026 at 8:28 pm
JimBobBuc … ‘IF IF IF AQM is for real, he should replace YaYa on passing downs.’
And there-in lies probably THE major reason why it’ll be hard for any of our OLBs to get double-digit sacks. I’m convinced that Bowles will keep 6 OLBs this season: Diaby, Muhammad, Bain, Nelson, Brasswell & Walker.
Go back to 2019 year-by-year and check how many def snaps our OLBs have gotten. Every year the formula is the same: our OLB group gets roughly TWICE the number of def plays recorded our defense, meaning that Bowles essentially keeps TWO OLBs on the field (average) at all times (total def plays include plays that didn’t count because a penalty, such as a DPI against the Bucs was accepted yet the play was conducted).
o 2025: 2092 def snaps (7 OLB) … 1044 def plays … 2.00
o 2024: 2278 def snaps (7 OLB) … 1117 def plays … 2.04
o 2023: 2262 def snaps (6 OLB) … 1126 def plays … 2.01
o 2022: 2213 def snaps (6 OLB) … 1121 def plays … 1.97
o 2021: 2386 def snaps (5 OLB) … 1141 def plays … 2.09
o 2020: 2109 def snaps (5 OLB) … 1063 def plays … 1.98
o 2019: 2261 def snaps (6 OLB) … 1130 def plays … 2.00
Todd seems to be more consistent in OLB usage than how/when he uses any other position group on defense. For his 7 years here, OLBs averaged 2229 def plays per season as a position group. Injuries certainly play a factor into how many def snaps any one particular OLB will get on the season, but it looks to me like the bigger factor by far is how well Bowles perceives that they can execute his defensive plan.
For instance, in 2019 Shaq got 889 def snaps (out of the 2261 total for all our OLBs). Happened to be the year that Shaq got 19.5 sacks, 37 QB Hits, 19 TFLs & 58 tackles (45 solo) … all the highest numbers of his career. And then in 2020 JPP got a whopping 943 def snaps (out of 2109 total for all our OLBs). And yup, that was the same year that JPP had great stats with 9.5 sacks, 14 QB Hits, 7 TFLs & 55 tackles (34 solo). Looks to me like IF you’re producing, Todd leaves you out there.
Makes me really curious about what will happen this year IF Bain & Diaby really rule the roost (both are apparently very good at Run Defense as well as rushing the passer). Will Muhammad, Nelson, Brasswell & Walker be able to get enough def snaps to really make a difference?
June 19th, 2026 at 8:57 pm
Why would bowles ask anybody to do other things?? Its stupid! whatever you played in college your stuck with …Right guys?? Help me out im trying to cross train to a troll!
June 19th, 2026 at 11:22 pm
Tighten up the coverage, and Yaya would be in the double digits.
Also, as stated before, if you listen to other teams podcasts, with ex-players who know the game, when they play the Bucs, all the time on defense, after watching tape, they’d talk all the time about how Yaya jumps off the tape when they watch him, and ask why this guy isn’t considered a top player in the NFL, he does everything well, gets great pressure, etc.
If the Bucs want to throw around money this offense and extend guys under contract, Yaya would be my #1 choice, followed by Vita.
June 19th, 2026 at 11:23 pm
I love bringing content to JoeBucsFan, but some of these takes are getting exhausting.
YaYa has 13 TFLs in three straight seasons and is being mentioned alongside guys like Aaron Donald, Micah Parsons, Khalil Mack, J.J. Watt, Maxx Crosby, and Lavonte David. At some point production has to matter more than internet scouting reports.
Would I like more sacks? Absolutely. But football isn’t played on a stat sheet. Setting the edge, creating pressures, forcing offenses behind the chains, and making tackles for loss all impact winning.
The constant criticism sounds a lot like people judging what YaYa isn’t instead of appreciating what he is. Once T-Rex bain helps free him up and those pressures start turning into sacks, a lot of these takes are going to age poorly.
LFG!!
Ring Me
June 20th, 2026 at 12:35 am
Whole lotta lemming speak going on in Polly positive land.
Y’all need to wake up and remember who’s running the defense.
It’s still Todd Bowles. Not some young DC and innovator of passing schemes.
4-13 at best.
June 20th, 2026 at 2:16 am
BoriMex 813 Says:
Would I like more sacks? Absolutely.
————
You could put LT in his prime in this defense, and he’s not getting double digit sacks. Bowles plays such an awful super soft zone defense, QBs always have someone who is wide open to dump the ball off too the second they feel any pressure. When Bowles does play aggressive (which means not playing his garbage zone) that’s when you see guys racking up sacks – and why just a few years ago the team had a lot more sacks overall. But Bowles is playing softer and softer as time goes along, and that limits everyone. If he just simply was more aggressive in cover, played more man — or heaven forbid — actually played a tight zone, we’d see a dramatic improvement.
June 20th, 2026 at 6:29 am
It’s not so much SACKS, it’s pressure in general. WE only get sacks when we send 5-6 guys, which is rare. All the OTHER dropbacks, the QB just stands there and calmly go through his progressions and carves us up. No secondary can deal with that
June 20th, 2026 at 8:03 am
Rod … ‘You could put LT in his prime in this defense, and he’s not getting double digit sacks. Bowles plays such an awful super soft zone defense, QBs always have someone who is wide open to dump the ball off too the second they feel any pressure.’
Rod your flair for the dramatic is really improving. ‘QBs ALWAYS have someone wide open to dump off to’? ‘AWFUL SUPER SOFT zone defense’? That’s like watching an artillery barrage where they zero in on a 1 square mile area and then the commander orders them to ‘fire for effect’.
Bowles, like every DC running the 3-4, uses a broad combination of cover tactics, often on the same play (part in zone; part man-to-man?). Regardless of what coverages we’re running on any given play, his bottom line has (almost) always been the same IMO: defend the run first. In combination with that, we see a lot of ‘disguises’ & actual blitzes (I think a lot of that has to do with the talent he has on the field at the time, but only heaven knows what’s REALLY going on out there).
One thing I do see though is that our opponents typically DON’T like to run against us, preferring the pass option. They’ve all apparently figured out that we’re typically very good at run defense (and gap control). And in fact we have been … every year EXCEPT 2022 we’ve been in the Top-5 Run Defenses in terms of Rushing Yards Allowed since Todd came in 2019.
But something interesting happened to our Pass Defense in 2022. Instead of ranking in the 20’s or 30’s, it ranked #9 best and we allowed opposing QBs to only complete 63.9% of their passes (2nd best in his 7 years). So our Run Defense plummeted to a #15 ranking, but our Pass Defense rose to a #9 ranking that year.
You’d think that a Top-10 Pass Defense would’ve made everyone ecstatic, yet we finished 9-8 that year and our defense finished with a #13 ranking in Points Allowed. And guess what … Todd went right back in 2023, 2024 & 2025 to PRIORITIZING STOPPING THE RUN (we again ranked in the Top-5 in Rushing Yards Allowed in 2023, 2024 & 2025). And our Pass Defense went back to ranking #29, #29 & #27 in those 3 years in terms of Passing Yards Allowed. Opposing QBs completed 66.1%, 66.3% and 66.7% in those 3 years. The only year our Completions Percentage Allowed was HIGHER than those was in our Super Bowl year 2020 … when we allowed a whopping 69.0% yet our defense ranked #8 overall.
Might be too simplistic, but I think the problem has been a combination of the talent level of our DLine & OLBs over the last 3 years, PLUS how Todd has used them. Other than Vea, we simply weren’t big enough or talented enough (or available enough in the case of Kancey). I THINK we’ve done a good job of improving that this off-season, and that Todd will use a LOT more 4 & 5 man rushes, less blitzing, and more appropriate coverages (zone AND man-to-man). At least that’s my HOPE (that’s to get Joe psyched up; he’s big on HOPE as we all know).
June 20th, 2026 at 8:06 am
Correction Rod, we finished 8-9 in 2022 (not 9-8).
June 21st, 2026 at 9:48 am
Personally, I hate zone. I prefer man coverage.
My opinion. Ight change if Bowles tightened the sone by half so players would have a better chance to read and react…maybe get more picks