When Single-Blocked, YaYa Diaby Gets Near Quarterbacks
June 22nd, 2026
Dangerous man when facing a single blocker.
Joe considers quarterback pressures to be horseshoes and hand grenades stats.
It is the only time “close” counts for something. Maybe.
Pressures is nothing more than “almost” getting the job done. It doesn’t get the job done. Joe maintains pressures do not faze superior quarterbacks and if the Super Bowl is truly a team goal, Joe is very confident that sometime along the way in the playoffs, a team will face a superior quarterback.
Nowhere else in football is almost getting the job done celebrated so. You hear anyone jump up and down and holler about an almost-catch, an almost-tackle, an almost-pick, or an almost-fumble recovery?
But with quarterback pressures, failure is applauded and deemed an asset.
To be fair, Joe guesses a pressure means a player at least sheds a block. It’s a step. So in that respect, Bucs outside linebacker YaYa Diaby is showing progress.
Per senior NFL researcher Tony Holzman-Escareno, very few edge rushers (five to be precise) get more pressures than YaYa when they are single-teamed.
So what’s this tell Joe? That YaYa needs help, other defensive linemen to lure traffic away from him and eat up blockers.
That’s why the addition of rookie Rueben Bain and the health of Calijah Kancey are so important. If Bain develops like so many think he can, and if Kancey can stay on the field, that should free up YaYa.
And if YaYa gets enough pressures, sooner or later, an accident will happen and he will get a sack. That’s a whole lot of work, wishful thinking, hope and draft capital just to reach the goal of the quarterback lying prone on the turf.
June 22nd, 2026 at 5:43 am
YaYa is great against the run and does well with tackles behind the line. YaYa whines that he’d doubled on pass plays, but I don’t see it. I see him always bull rushing with no counter moves, so he gets pressures but he’s not a great sack producer.
YaYa, AQM, and Reuben typically play on the right side. Who is going to move to the left side? We haven’t had a good left edge guy since Shaq Barrett was at his peak. Who is going to step up on the left side so we can actually have two good edge rushers this year? Let’s get the pads on and see!
June 22nd, 2026 at 6:26 am
So, Joe believes that forcing a QB to throw much faster than he wants to does nothing to affect his accuracy or ability to find an open receiver. It does nothing to increase incompletions or lead to interceptions. It does nothing to help the secondary stay close to the receivers they are covering.
Sorry, but few receivers get open in under two seconds and even great QBs can’t complete passes to people who are not open.
June 22nd, 2026 at 6:29 am
“ALMOST” Diaby is what the coaches call him cause he always almost get there 😂😂😂😂 dudes a bum
June 22nd, 2026 at 7:39 am
This is why we need to extend YAYA now. We can extend him for about 20 million With Bain and a healthy Kancey YAYA is going to exploded, you are going to have to pay him 30 plus million a year.
June 22nd, 2026 at 7:43 am
“So what’s this tell Joe? That YaYa needs help, other defensive linemen to lure traffic away from him and eat up blockers.”
Yaya needs to learn how to finish, he’s raw talent, but lacking the skill refinement. Sure, he can win, but how he wins lends more to what make him an almost sack artist and not necessarily a guy who can consistently work through offensive tackles.
Limited countermoves, Yaya plays under his pads as opposed to behind them, which at 6’4 you’re easier to manage for OTs if you’re pretty much standing up off the ball giving up your body and kind of negates his elite-ish get off.
If Yaya can find a way to shave a half second off the time it takes for him to get off the ball, engage and disengage he’ll start seeing the QB more. If we can also keep better containment on the interior and not provide QBs with lanes of escape whether it be to throw or flush the pocket that’ll help the front as a whole.
I think in that regard, there’s a lot Diaby can learn from AQM & Bain to add/further develop his own individual game, especially when it comes to hand usage/fighting.
June 22nd, 2026 at 8:37 am
He almost gets there? I should hope so.
June 22nd, 2026 at 9:13 am
It is not just about Diaby. It is a team sport, and it is about the team reaching the critical mass that leads to a runaway productivity increase.
If the coverage of the Bucs ILBs improves so that it is no longer a “Get Out of Sack Free” card, if Kancey is healthy, if Bain and Muhammad and Scott and Trotter bring more pressures, Vea and Diaby and the entire group should convert more pressures to sacks or throwaways.
Unfortunately, throwaways are not a readily available stat. But, a throwaway is a loss of down like a run stuff or a sack. And, a pressure that results in a throwaway or a turnover worthy throw is worth more than a pressure than still sees the ball get to the hands of the receiver, and that difference is what the Bucs may see this year.
This year’s ensemble could reach that critical mass that sees increased sacks, increased interceptions, and increased three and outs because of throwaways.
If the defense achieves that critical mass and the offense is healthy, this could easily be a 12 win team that makes some noise in the playoffs.
June 22nd, 2026 at 9:30 am
Yaya gets near! YAY! This is like Bowles saying that the score was close, the Bucs ALMOST won. The Bucs had a losing record last year because of a loser attitude that started with the coach.
June 22nd, 2026 at 9:30 am
JimBob…
Bain did plenty of damage playing the left side.
June 22nd, 2026 at 9:39 am
We’ll pay you 30 million….aaaah almost. Is 20 million almost 30 million?
June 22nd, 2026 at 9:59 am
When you have Bain, Kelsey, Ya Ya, Veta, the offensive line can’t double team any one player. This will help improve the secondary coverage and force quarterbacks to get rid of the football sooner.
The Bucs defense has the potential of a top ten team, making the Bucs a true playoff contender. That means more opportunities for Baker to be on the field and do his magic.
June 22nd, 2026 at 10:24 am
Extend YaYa before VV…age, body type, higher ceiling and possibly attitude. ( VV’s isn’t bad…just pretty mellow. Mahalo. )
June 22nd, 2026 at 12:02 pm
Poor coaching is the origin of poor play.
June 22nd, 2026 at 12:02 pm
Been saying this, but YaYa extended now and sooner than later is not a terrible idea!
June 22nd, 2026 at 12:54 pm
Would be helpful to have percentages of pressures instead of count because I have no clue how many times each of these guys was blocked 1-on-1….
I imagine Aidan Hutchinson’s number of reps was WAY less than Yaya Diaby’s, for example..
June 22nd, 2026 at 1:26 pm
What a slap in the face. Brutal article, Joe.
“Almost”
June 22nd, 2026 at 3:12 pm
“Would be helpful to have percentages of pressures instead of count because I have no clue how many times each of these guys was blocked 1-on-1….”
Next gen stats had Yaya posting a 16.3% pressure rate which ranked 6th of any rusher who had at least 350 pass rush snaps. Yaya had 380 pass rush reps, and faced a double on 35.2% of those reps.
Yaya still managed a 12.1% pressure rate on double teams.
-Micah Parsons had an 11.8% success rate against double teams
-JJ Watt finished with a win rate of 17.6% when chipped or doubled.
-Myles Garrett had a success rate of 23% when chipped or doubled.
-Hutchinson had a 20% win rate when chipped or doubled.
Yayas’ win rate placed him at 19th overall, a fraction of points behind Maxx Crosby
Though these guys saw a higher rate of doubles than Yaya, they’re all reputable disruptors when it comes to Pass rushing and Yaya isn’t far off at all.
There’s a little he can do internally to improve his rush plan, and he can also benefit not just from Bain but our interior DL rotation. Alot goes into why OLs slide protect to slow down rushers like Diaby, but if just means the pressure will come from elsewhere it means our whole front can benefit, not just Yaya. Cause now instead of him being keyed on the QB & OL have to chose right pre-snap on who to try to slow down.
Everybody eats.