Rueben Bain, Todd Bowles And Sacks From The Edge
May 11th, 2026
Edge rush history.
Since KitKat-eating Bucs coach Todd Bowles first became a defensive coordinator with the Eagles in 2012, he has yet to develop a rookie defensive end who went on to have 10 or more sacks.
Bowles has done fine with veterans — or so Joe thought — but the one Joe who is nervous about Bowles developing 2026 first-round pick Reuben Bain started having an anxiety attack about this subject while reading a complimentary piece about Bain from Tom Blair of NFL.com. There, Blair pointed out that Bowles has been woeful in developing edge rushers in recent years.
I don’t know how much it bothers Todd Bowles that he’s only coached two players to double-digit sack seasons since he first became the Jets’ HC in 2015 (Muhammad Wilkerson, who had 12 for the Jets that season, and Shaq Barrett, who logged 19.5 and 10 under Bowles as the Bucs’ defensive coordinator in 2019 and 2021).
Joe doesn’t think this bothers Bowles much, if at all.
And Joe knows what you are thinking. No, Jason Pierre-Paul never had double-digit sacks with Bowles. JPP did have 12.5 sacks with Mike Smith (!). JPP added 8.5 sacks in 2019 and 9.5 sacks in 2020, and then Father Time took JPP away.
Another element to this is three years after Wilkerson had 12 sacks in 2015, Bowles cut him. (Wilkerson wasn’t exactly an angel, let’s be real.)
Despite Bowles’ sad record developing edge rushers, Blair still thinks Bain can be a monster for the Bucs.
At this particular juncture of Bain’s career, his shorter-than-average arms and draft-day slide might seem like defining elements of his story. It wasn’t that long ago, though, that he was tormenting passers at a prolific rate. If Bowles can get him doing that again — and he seems pretty psyched about that possibility, wherever Bain lines up — those details will fade into footnotes.
The same Joe who is freaked out about Bowles and edge rushers is still willing to give Bowles and Bain a chance to prove everyone wrong, that Bowles can and will develop a rookie edge rusher.
The futures of several people could hang in the balance.
May 11th, 2026 at 4:37 am
When you’re moving your edge rusher inside on passing downs, or dropping them in coverage, genius, it’s hard to rack up sacks from the edge.
May 11th, 2026 at 5:17 am
I’m not a big fan of Bowles, but was it him or the lack of talent? I’m trying to remember if the Bucs let anyone go who went on to get double-digit sacks? Did anyone even have average success? Sapp at the end of his career?
May 11th, 2026 at 5:37 am
Billy Shakespeare had it right: ‘Much adoo about nothing’. Bain is a rookie, and even you Joe have admitted that it’s not all that common for rookies to get double-digit sacks. The NFL is the big-dogs league, and it takes time for youngsters to learn how to practice & play with the other big dogs.
Beyond that though, edge rushers’ production IMO is very often directly related to the quality of the defense they’re part of. We saw that first-hand with Shaq when he had Vea, Suh, RNR, Gholston & others creating chaos on the opposing offenses in 2019-2021. And Shaq was talented enough to take full advantage. Got a feeling that Bain is also. And yes, so is Diaby; don’t write him off too quickly.
Our interior DLine was meh last season. It’s older this year, but I’m betting that it’s more talented & nastier. And oh ya, beefier. They’ll do better stopping the run, but even more importantly, our pass rush SHOULD be much improved. Nonetheless, talk is cheap; still gotta play the games. That’s the only place where it counts.
May 11th, 2026 at 6:07 am
Does any NFL Head Coach really “develop” an edge rusher??
Won’t the vast majority of Rueben Bain’s conversations about technique and how to be a better pass rushing OLBer be with 13 year NFL LBer and 2X Super Bowl winner Larry Foote??
‘This’ Joseph is like a dog with a bone when he gets an odd notion in his head…
Won’t let it go…..
May 11th, 2026 at 6:13 am
Interesting side note:
Larry Foote played more NFL seasons than most players get to with 30.5″ arms.
May 11th, 2026 at 6:28 am
I’d like to see the list of players he had to work with in his career to see how many went on to be “coached up” by someone far superior.
May 11th, 2026 at 6:57 am
Rueben Bain is the only star Edge Rusher that was drafted by the Bucs
The other Edge Rushers wasn’t that great in college
None of them were expected to be good in the NFL
And they performed to the level of their expectations
Nothing were expected if them, and they did nothing
May 11th, 2026 at 6:58 am
We run a hybrid 3-4; sacks don’t have a zip code. I give two sh!tz where the pressure comes from as long as it gets home. Give me 45+ sacks spread across the front seven, a top-5 run defense, and a pass defense that holds inside the top 15.
Do that, and we’ll see you in January.
Go Bucs. 🏴☠️ #TrenchMobb
May 11th, 2026 at 6:59 am
“””Drafted by the Bucs since Todd Bowles been DC”*
May 11th, 2026 at 7:01 am
Edge Rusher and QB has been our draft failures for years
May 11th, 2026 at 7:02 am
Talk is cheap. Especially from a rookie 4th round pick who walks into the building with a cast on. I have my doubts about our new defensive end, too. These 2 might be just what we needed. I’m behind the new guys 1000%. Add Trotter to the mix and those 3 guys could make a big difference. But, for now, they are rooks and they should keep their heads on a swivel and their mouths shut. I guess I’m old school.
May 11th, 2026 at 7:09 am
Yes, DCs are supposed to develop players. Since Todd has that title along with the HC title he, and he alone is responsible for failures of the defense. I too am highly skeptical, no matter the talent as his philosophy has always been play not to lose and no killer instincts.
May 11th, 2026 at 7:18 am
The guy has done nothing and everyone acts like hes a defensive coaching god.
I don’t get it
May 11th, 2026 at 7:27 am
“We run a hybrid 3-4; sacks don’t have a zip code. I give two sh!tz where the pressure comes from as long as it gets home. Give me 45+ sacks spread across the front seven, a top-5 run defense, and a pass defense that holds inside the top 15.”
100% correct
May 11th, 2026 at 7:30 am
…
May 11th, 2026 at 7:31 am
Test
May 11th, 2026 at 7:32 am
Smh
May 11th, 2026 at 7:32 am
The New York Jets have been incompetent for years. Probably Decades. It’s a grave yard for HC’s.
I’m not pinning blame on Todd Bowles for not developing edge rushers. They are hard to find and develop. There are only a hand ✋️ full of teams that have them. When you sign one from another team they are usually nearing the end of their carreer.
Let’s pray 🙏 that Bain Jr is that guy. Todd Bowles knows his job is on the line and coaching him up is priority one. Alot is on the Bucs and Bain to perform. To Bain’s credit, he is embracing the challenge. Few succeed. If anyone can succeed, Bain has both the mind set and talent to be a really good player.
May 11th, 2026 at 7:35 am
Bowles has his strengths and merits but I think it is safe to say he doesn’t know much about what is done with edge rushers.
The question is what does he know about a certain truck that was hijacked outside of Turin, Italy on March 28?
The truck in question contained 413,793 Kit Kat bars- that is 12 metric tons of Kit Kats. Police have no leads or suspects but the fella in the above photo sure looks suspicious…
May 11th, 2026 at 8:11 am
BucEmUp, Nothing? Does winning a Super Bowl count as anything? Shutting the chiefs down in SB, not letting them score a TD count? Not saying he’s a genius HOF coach but give the guy some credit geez.
May 11th, 2026 at 8:38 am
I would like to see the defense play with a sense of urgency!!!!..saw none of that last year!!!!
we’ll see what happens
GO BUCS!!!!
May 11th, 2026 at 8:57 am
Safe to say, Bowles has proven to be a loser and a failure who takes all three units of a team and drives them all into the ground. Last year, defense, offense, and special teams all took turns contributing to defeat in creative ways.
And this clown was allowed to fire everyone else and stay.
Drinking early and often.
May 11th, 2026 at 9:24 am
Glazers know best..they care.. the Documentary even said so. Keep Todd, extend Todd, hell maybe even expand his duties…he’s proven how good he is. Geeeeez.
May 11th, 2026 at 9:27 am
Scot’s, that defense with JPP Shaq Suh Vita against 2 backup tackles would’ve dominated with Mike Smith or Lovie Smith as DC, the dominant talent won the Super Bowl not Bowles scheme
May 11th, 2026 at 9:29 am
scotd – you are crazy. the only reason KC got buried that game was that mahomes was hobbling around with turf toe. a healthy mahomes makes the game competitive. how about the last 4 years???? not only is he the worst HC in the NFL, he’s been the worst DC in the league. those are the facts. look at the tapes.
May 11th, 2026 at 9:35 am
If you have proper talent does it outplay the terrible scheme?
May 11th, 2026 at 9:49 am
Bowles scheme made it impossible for Mahomes to consistently move the ball. And only rushing 4 most of the time let us use 3 safety looks a lot.
May 11th, 2026 at 9:57 am
Takes a great DC to scheme how to shut down a team with 2 practice squad tackles and a QB with turf toe. Didn’t even have to blitz. Pure genius.
May 11th, 2026 at 10:09 am
👆👆👆It’s sad that you really believe that.👆👆👆
May 11th, 2026 at 10:52 am
The two most important positions on a football team.
May 11th, 2026 at 10:56 am
I am gonna give Todd enough rope to hang himself on this one. We have a much different D line this year I think and I am fairly certain Todd is drooling over the different things he can do with our dudes.
I just hope he does not outsmart himself. If Diaby turns the corner. Bain learns quickly on the job and Vea, Robinson, Kancey and the rest can provide the big man run support and can push dudes around in the middle we could have some fun this year. However Bowles likes to send people from everywhere and that gets our Defense in trouble. Don’t outsmart yourself Coach.
Go Bucs!
May 11th, 2026 at 11:07 am
Baine won’t get 10 sacks.
May 11th, 2026 at 12:45 pm
As long as the D can stop the run and pressure the QB into making mistakes, I really don’t care who gets double digit sacks. This is it for Todd Bowles. He already has one foot in the grave of his NFL HC career. Either he gets it done or doesn’t. Remember, the Glazers were prepared to move forward with Harbaugh if things aligned, so all the talk about, “We like Todd” is BS. They and JL want to see results.
May 11th, 2026 at 12:53 pm
Put Bain and Diaby on the same side at times….Kancey on the other then let them eat.
May 11th, 2026 at 1:31 pm
Lakeland Says:
May 11th, 2026 at 6:57 am
Rueben Bain is the only star Edge Rusher that was drafted by the Bucs
The other Edge Rushers wasn’t that great in college
None of them were expected to be good in the NFL
And they performed to the level of their expectations
Nothing were expected if them, and they did nothing
^^^^^^^^^
Do you honestly think the Bucs took JTS in the 1st Round and he wasn’t expected to be good? He wasn’t any good, but to say he wasn’t even expected to be good is kind of making things up.
May 11th, 2026 at 6:12 pm
I really doubt there are any head coaches of DC who go out and stick their hand in the dirt and individually coach up any players so I will pass on criticizing Bowels on this. That’s assistants’ job if anything. Chuck Noll used to do it but that is the only HC I know of. There are also special camps organized in the offseason where defensive players can go to and hone their skills.
May 11th, 2026 at 7:13 pm
We need sacks on 3rd & 4th down when 3& 28 could become 4th & 38. These are the important downs doesn’t matter on 1st & 2nd because we still give up 1st downs.
May 11th, 2026 at 9:24 pm
I think that position sack totals are more important than individual sack totals. And, the more broadly sacks are spread around the formation, particularly inside, the greater the benefit of each sack to the defense.
I think that a well balanced team would have sack totals by position about like this:
16 sacks from OLB starters, and 8 from OLB backups – total 24.
18 sacks from IDL starters, and 6 from OLB backups – total 24.
12 sacks from ILB starters, and 4 from ILB backups – total 16.
12 sacks from the DB group.
Grand total – 66 sacks. Brincos led the NFL in 2025 with 68 sacks.