How To Get David Walker On The Field
August 8th, 2026
Plug and play?
As you heard on Friday’s “Ira Kaufman Podcast, the two Joes had an interesting discussion on how to get David Walker on the field more this season.
Yes, yes, yes. The Bucs still haven’t played a worthless preseason game. And Walker may not be all that. OK, Joe gets it.
But what if he is? What if Walker lives up to the hype?
Surely Walker is not going to get more snaps than Rueben Bain. It’s unlikely Walker gets more snaps than YaYa Diaby. And the Bucs are paying Al-Quadin Muhammad some $4 million after he had an 11-sack season.
It seems, KitKat-eating Bucs coach Todd Bowles has an answer.
“Just his energy and his athleticism [have] showed up,” Bowles said of Walker. “We didn’t get to see him in pads last year, but to see him out there and the way he moves, he moves like an inside [linebacker], but he plays outside [linebacker] and he [has] great power.
“To see him out there playing fast and not worried about his knee is great.”
Bowles likes to play defenders all over the place. Shoot, he’s tried to turn YaYa into a safety and Bowles likes to have safeties rush the passer like edge rushers. And just this training camp, Bowles has slot corner Keionte Scott playing all over the secondary.
If Walker proves to be that good, would you move Bain inside and have Walker play outside on passing downs? Or vice versa, since Walker is 260?
“This Joe” isn’t so sure he wants to see Walker get more than five sacks. Why? That may mean someone is hurt and Walker is getting more snaps than planned.
August 8th, 2026 at 8:10 am
The truth is both Bain and Walker are 1st year players. In addition to the early season oven Ray Jay is, both will need a little more “What did you see there?” coaching early in the year. So both should rotate a lot more early in the year than later.
By then, they will have a better idea of what to do with both of them.
August 8th, 2026 at 8:16 am
There will be plenty of opportunities this year to play Bain, Walker and Al-Quadin. Players have gotten faster and stronger over the past few decade and at the same time, injuries have skyrocketed. Teams that are going to win deep in the post-season either need to escape tons of injuries or need a deep roster of good players.
August 8th, 2026 at 8:17 am
Walker can easily get 6-7 sacks and not be a stater. Hell Mohammad had double digits and wasn’t a starter.
August 8th, 2026 at 8:36 am
YaYa is not that good. Tied for 35 in sacks (7.5) last year. Tied for 95 (4.5) in 2024. Tied for 46 (7.5) in 2023.
Simeon Rice, for frame of reference, never had less than 12 sacks between 2002 and 2005.
August 8th, 2026 at 8:37 am
If he is making plays, they will find a way to play him. Let’s hope the hype is true. After all the hype last year and such an awful showing by the defense, I will hold any thoughts or expectations until after the season starts.
August 8th, 2026 at 8:41 am
D-line could flip the script this year. Last year’s weakness may become the strength. But they will need VV for that to happen.
August 8th, 2026 at 8:45 am
Don’t be ridiculous. Bowles has many flaws but keeping his best players on the bench is not one of them. If lives up to the raves, he will play.
August 8th, 2026 at 8:46 am
@modhairken
You can’t use Simeon at a comp in his prime playing on one of the best defensive ever in the nfl playing with 4 future hall of fame players as a comp to justify if yaya is good or not. Compare there first 3 years and Simeon rice averaged 2.5 more sacks a year than yaya. Now I can use the numbers to work in my favor to say his first 3 years on a terrible defense with no pass rush he is only averaging 2.5 less sacks a year than a future hall of Famer.
August 8th, 2026 at 9:07 am
If he’s as good as advertised, eventually Diaby becomes the primary backup. And Bain and Walker the primary pass rushers. Wow, that sounds scary.
August 8th, 2026 at 9:07 am
Joe … ‘If Walker proves to be that good, would you move Bain inside and have Walker play outside on passing downs? Or vice versa, since Walker is 260?’
I really dislike small guys (Bain is 270 lbs but that miniscule compared to Tristan Wifs& other OLinemen his size). Good way to get them hurt IMO. Might be wrong, but I still think playing so much inside is what contributed to Calijah Kancey … all 280 lbs of him … only playing in 29 games in his first 3 years.
I love what Bowles said about Walker … ‘he moves like an inside [linebacker], but he plays outside [linebacker] and he [has] great power.’ Kinda wonder if that might be a tip-off that Todd will line him up some as a 3rd ILB (4-3 formations), yet let him blitz when the situations allow.
Bucs have a number of DLinemen close to 300 lbs. And we have them for a reason: to go against the opponents’ big guys & take care of business. If anything, we need to move Kancey further outside (DE instead of DT) to protect him a little bit more yet still let him use his speed & quickness.
August 8th, 2026 at 9:17 am
If Walker and Bain work out and really become dominant edge rushers this is great news and timing for the Bucs. They can avoid having to give Diaby a huge contract. While I don’t think he will get elite edge rusher money he will get paid.
August 8th, 2026 at 9:26 am
Analyze is old and injury prone. Put him there.
August 8th, 2026 at 9:26 am
Anzalone that is.
August 8th, 2026 at 9:34 am
It seems like we have this conversation every year. Maybe this year it will be prophetic for once.
August 8th, 2026 at 9:40 am
So Walker is looking like a camp warrior so far… I’ll buy in if he does it in the regular season.
Best players get the starting roles. Backups play a lot on this team, so even as a backup he’ll get his time.
August 8th, 2026 at 9:47 am
“How to get David Walker on the field?”
Step 1 – stay healthy past week one of preseason.
Step 2 – Earn more playing time by dominating in preseason practice and games.
It’s not rocket surgery folks.
LOL.
August 8th, 2026 at 9:55 am
Wow, just reread that. Earlier comment should have read … “I really dislike small guys PLAYING INSIDE TOO MUCH. Good way to get them hurt IMO.’ Gotta love auto-correct.
August 8th, 2026 at 10:22 am
If he’s one of the two best edge rushers on the team you get him snaps. You don’t worry about anything else.
If he does great and proves he’s better than ya ya, you don’t have to pay ya ya after this year. Problem solved.
August 8th, 2026 at 10:23 am
i see it as more of a fresh legs scenario. Just keep rotating the four of them in and out if they are all good.
August 8th, 2026 at 10:24 am
It’s also possible the Bucs could trade Braswell or Nelson for scraps if the OLB unit is still too crowded after the preseason and another team has injuries at that position…
August 8th, 2026 at 10:35 am
Jack Burton – “[Anzalone] is old and injury prone. Put him there.”
Ridiculous! He missed three games with a shoulder injury five years ago, one game last year with a concussion and also had a concussion, missing a game in 2024. 2024 is also the year that he missed 6 games with a broken forearm. Are we now counting broken bones in the “injury prone” designation?
August 8th, 2026 at 10:42 am
Defense, I actually filled in your correction when I read your original post. It’s the only thing that made sense.
August 8th, 2026 at 11:10 am
The kool aid is a flowin
August 8th, 2026 at 11:16 am
Zero snaps in real games. Wake me up when that changes.
August 8th, 2026 at 11:45 am
Some crazy stuff floating around in here on this one. If he is better than the dudes we have? Get him snaps. At what ever position gets him wrapping up a QB as many times as he can!
DR may have hit on a fix. A 4-3 sounds interesting to me.
Kancey is just plain getting beat up by 320 lb interior linemen especially when it is two of them. Not that he can’t do it but when guys outweigh you by that much?
I played O line at an undersized weight and it was next to impossible with some of them. 20 lbs may not seem like that much but… I could occupy them but beating them? Tough.
Go Bucs!
August 8th, 2026 at 12:26 pm
@ Summer
“Zero snaps in real games. Wake me up when that changes.”
Yep. This type of pessimistic attitude is a virus that affects every longtime Buc Fan who has seen the river of promising but fruitless players that have flowed through One Buc for decades…
I agree with you.
And to this franchise – YOU MADE ME THIS WAY!!!!!
August 8th, 2026 at 1:42 pm
garro … I think that Bowles uses a 4-3-4 (or a 4-2-5 version of that) much more than folks realize. Found a fascinating article (dated 13 Jan 2015) titled ‘Everything You Need to Know About Todd Bowles’ Defense’. It was obviously written to help Jets fans get to know their new HC.
In the 2014 season, Arizona played Dallas in their 8th game of the year & beat them 28-17. Dallas BTW had a very good team that year (finished 12-4). Todd Bowles, as BA’s DC, did something bizarre that probably threw the Cowboys for a loop: he switched from his normal 3-4 defense to a 4-3 defense for almost the whole game, simply because ‘it was a better match-up’. As the article’s author concluded … ‘ Bowles uses a decent amount of 4-3 looks, but this game was an almost wholesale change’.
August 8th, 2026 at 2:08 pm
One thing I’ll continue to say about Yaya is, do NOT forget about his Tackles for Loss. He is one of the top Defensive ends in the league as far as they go. A TFL is the EXACT same thing as a sack, you’re simply tackling someone other than the QB for a loss. People love to mention his “mediocre” sack totals but don’t bring up the TFLs. I didn’t do the research, but I bet if you compiled a list of guys Sacks+ TFLs, YaYa was be positioned quite nicely. He’s a hell of a player and will get better with this talent on the other side of him.
August 8th, 2026 at 2:20 pm
What if…Walker has more sacks than Bain?
:O
August 8th, 2026 at 2:59 pm
NO MORE DAVID WALKER HYPE!!! PLEASE….
August 8th, 2026 at 3:49 pm
I think we know where YaYa stands. He’s a 7-7.5 sack/year guy. Decent in run protection. David Walker has the potential to be a 15+ sack guy a year. He should be starting along with Bain.
August 8th, 2026 at 6:27 pm
this isnt the world cup where everyone has phenomenal cardio , easy to rotate dline the more merrier.