What Did Todd Bowles Mean By “Professional?”
July 28th, 2025
Breakout year?
Bucs coach Todd Bowles said something yesterday that is still buzzing around Joe’s noggin.
After practice, Bowles was asked about the progress outside linebacker YaYa Diaby has made. As a rookie, he splashed. In his second season, Diaby sort of regressed, unless of course one values horseshoes-and-hand-grenades football where “almost” is a worthy goal.
Bowles responded with a curious take.
“He’s been professional dating back to the spring,” Bowles said.
Hhhmmm?
Now last year Joe wondered why, after a strong rookie season, we didn’t see or hear of YaYa going to Maxx Crosby’s annual Sack Summit, a gathering of the game’s best pass rushers where they help tutor young pass rushers to be the next wave of pass rush leaders.
Joe puts a whole lot more stock in those guys than relying on assistant coaches who don’t care about an edge rush.
Now this year, YaYa did go to Crosby’s Sack Summit. YaYa has raved about what he learned.
Then, as if that wasn’t enough, YaYa had a training session with the great Simeon Rice at One Buc Palace. Really good stuff.
Is that what Bowles was getting at when he dropped the word “professional” in describing YaYa?
Maybe after a solid rookie season, YaYa may have thought he had things figured out, only to learn the NFL is a different beast than playing Wake Forest. Teams adjust and have grown arse men to carry out assignments.
“Everything he’s done has been with intention,” Bowles said of YaYa. “I like the way he’s getting off the ball right now – he’s really using his hands a lot more and a lot better. If he keeps that up, he should have a hell of a year.”
Well, Joe doesn’t think it hurt YaYa one bit to hang with some of the best edge rushers in the game. Then you drop an afternoon on YaYa with Rice, that cannot be a bad thing.
If YaYa can push double-digit sacks and Haason Reddick just has an average year, those two guys by themselves could turn around all on their own what has been, for too long, a poor-performing pass defense.
"Everything that I rehearsed in practice became a performance in the game."
Bucs legend @simeon_rice takes @greatyaya4 under his wing to teach him tricks of the trade that can't be found in a playbook 📝 pic.twitter.com/oSCeLwS7u1
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) July 20, 2025
July 28th, 2025 at 7:43 am
Yeah you have to live in a cave to not be excited by the Bucs this season.
Vita finally watching his weight, Kancey proclaiming his calves are now truly healed, the interior is capable of Pro Bowl play.
Now add a revitalized YaYa along with Reddick, SVD’s return to the LB corp and a defensive backfield that is more than simply promising! Start with perhaps the best safety in the league, paired with a young rising star, and at least 4 CB’s that have either demonstrated success or show tremendous potential giving the Bucs depth in the defensive backfield.
Until the injury bug bites there are no excuses for the D this year. IMO they won’t need to make them as the Bucs WILL succeed.
July 28th, 2025 at 7:46 am
YaYa seemed to learn more with Rice in a half hour than he has from the Buc coaches in three years. It begs the question, why haven’t the Bucs tried to hire Simeon as an edge coach, or at the very least brought him in as a consultant?
July 28th, 2025 at 7:50 am
Simeon makes a whole lot more money with far less work hours.
July 28th, 2025 at 8:01 am
David Walker out for the year with ACL tear.
July 28th, 2025 at 8:03 am
Maturation most likely. Yaya seeking out ways to broaden his game and be more effective off the edge sounds like he’s embracing his role as a pro and not questioning if he belongs. Diaby knows he does, and now he’s trying to figure how high he can take his game.
I’m all for it. Especially considering the injury bug just bit us on the butt again w/Walker
July 28th, 2025 at 8:14 am
If the Bucs fail to go deep into the playoffs then it raises questions about coaches or the character of the players.
It’s said the players highly respect Todd Bowles. All the indicators show the Bucs pointing upward. This is encouraging. Hopefully the injury bug
doesn’t rear it’s ugly face on the defense. Injuries are a part of the game. Developing reliable backup players will determine the Bucs success. So far, the Bucs are pushing all the right thing buttons and building a solid team.
July 28th, 2025 at 8:15 am
Too bad about Walker, hope he heals well , but that’s part of the game, next man up!
July 28th, 2025 at 8:25 am
Dewey … Bummer to hear that David Walker will be out for the year with an ACL injury. I was looking forward to seeing how well his superb college performance translates to the NFL level in his rookie year. Being an ‘older rookie’ I kinda felt that he could do quite well, although I still expected that he’d get limited reps because Diaby & Reddick have had excellent availability to date.
Hodad … I’d love to see the Bucs hire Simeon, even if just for limited timeframe like Training Camp. He definitely operates in a different dimension, but the results were always incredible.
StPete … Agree with everything you wrote, but there’s still ONE unknown at this point in my mind: HOW will this defense actually operate on the field? Will we still play a bunch of ‘loose zone’ or will we see a lot more of ‘in-your-face’? Will we blitz as much as we have in past years, or will we rely more on 4-5 man pass rush from our front guys? We’ve got the talent to be a Top-10 defense IMO, but getting those 11 bundles of talent to operate as 1 fine-tuned machine is obviously a lot harder than most of us can imagine. Especially since there are new ‘pieces’ in at least 3 key starting positions.
July 28th, 2025 at 9:06 am
D.R.
Yeah I’m curious to see all this talent put to use. Perhaps Todd can tighten up a on man coverage with a better rush, better DB depth, and the return of AW to erase mistakes.
July 28th, 2025 at 9:20 am
Not always about the money Joe, Simeon has a deep love for football. Look at Tom Moore. He’d work for free.
July 28th, 2025 at 9:32 am
Just when I began thinking I know football, I watch something like this video and realize how nuanced it can be. At each position, it’s a game within a game.
July 28th, 2025 at 10:26 am
StPete … ‘Perhaps Todd can tighten up a on man coverage with a better rush, better DB depth, and the return of AW to erase mistakes.’
I’ve become more convinced that a defense is only as good as its’ Front-3 or 4 (interior pass rush). Those guys set the tone IMO by creating initial ‘pressure’ & forcing the QB to move in 1 direction or another. Creates additional opportunities for the OLBs in our 3-4 defense it seems.
I used to love watching Vea & Suh operate together. They didn’t always get penetration, but it took extra blockers to hold them at bay. And that freed up JPP & Shaq to ‘do their thing’. Remember 2019 when Shaq & Suh together got 28 sacks? And oh ya, credit for 75 ‘pressures’ on top of that?
That same year Vea & Suh BOTH played in every game, and gave us 749 & 874 defensive snaps respectively … in 16 games. Shaq also gave us 16 games, but JPP only got in 10 games because of his injury. Still, the 2 of them gave us 889 & 586 defensive snaps respectively. And the funny thing is, the guy who mostly filled in for JPP while he was injured, Carl Nassib, also contributed 6 sacks (plus 630 def snaps).
Bucs got 47 sacks that year, and those 3 OLBs got 34 of them. For their part, our interior DLine only got 6 sacks (Vea 2.5, Suh 2.5 and Gholston 1). HUGE difference from what those Front guys got in 2024.
Interestingly the Bucs blitzed more than any year under Bowles (613 times), but literally HALF of those came from our OLBs. (Kinda brings up the question ‘Isn’t a blitzing OLB called a pass rusher?’ but we won’t go there).
What I’d
July 28th, 2025 at 10:28 am
Correction St Pete … it was Shaq and JPP who got 28 sacks, not Suh. Can’t even claim a typo on that one huh.
July 28th, 2025 at 10:33 am
todd is slippery. he says and doesnt say all sorts of things. professional just means “well it has been two years hopefully he has finally turned the page. otherwise we will have to get rid of him after year four”.
July 28th, 2025 at 11:44 am
D.R.
Agree completely. Remember the late Keith Jackson, voice of NCAA football when ABC was the only voice. He always referred to the importance of “The big uglies”.
July 28th, 2025 at 4:19 pm
Lack of proper coaching leads to lack of development, followed by regression. Who would expect it?
July 29th, 2025 at 7:05 am
Still more questions about our two former Defensive coaches. What exactly were they doing at practices? Why do any of our OLBs need extra outside coaching (not that it hurts) but … Maybe we should send some of our coaches to these “sack summits”.
Go Bucs!