YaYa Diaby Explains Who Rueben Bain Reminds Him Of
June 27th, 2026
Unique Rueben Bain comparison.
Bucs outside linebacker YaYa Diaby is in a big year, a contract season. Like Baker Mayfield, Diaby is looking to get paid.
So YaYa’s enthusiasm isn’t just because he has new teammates. If he balls out, now playing with help, he’s going to be a richer young man.
And as YaYa has pointed out a couple of times, if new teammates like defensive lineman Rueben Bain lay the wood to opposing offenses, who is going to stop the Bucs’ front-seven?
While appearing on “The Insiders,” seen weeknights on NFL Network, YaYa was asked about Bain. YaYa said Bain reminds him of … himself.
“The dude’s serious,” YaYa said of Bain. “He’s about business, and I love that about him, because it reminds me of how I was when I first got to the Bucs.
“[YaYa was] all about business [as a rookie] and ready to showcase my abilities.”
As far as getting after quarterbacks, YaYa’s rookie season was his best. He had 7.5 sacks in 2023, while only starting in seven games.
YaYa almost matched that number last year with seven sacks.
So if Bain can have a strong rookie season, that would sure help what has been the past few years one of the league’s worst pass defenses.
In the past three seasons in average passing yards allowed per game, the Bucs have finished No. 27 last season, No. 29 in 2024 and No. 29 in 2023.
June 27th, 2026 at 12:47 am
Maybe mindset-wise, to an extent, YaYa.
But if Bain is only just 1.5x the player of YaYa at his best, it’ll be disappointing
June 27th, 2026 at 1:22 am
I was hoping he was gonna say somebody like Ray Lewis Lawrence Taylor Julius Peppers Bruce Smith Reggie White JJ Watt Michael Strahan Myles Garrett Derrick Brooks or somebody like that.
June 27th, 2026 at 1:38 am
YaYa. He will only get better. Go Bucs
June 27th, 2026 at 2:00 am
Diaby is actually really good. Way above average starter. With better people around him, maybe now he will be great right across from Bain. That would really be something…
June 27th, 2026 at 3:48 am
More action LESS talk.
June 27th, 2026 at 3:51 am
Should be an interesting year. Can he hit 10 sacks? Maybe a few more TFLs? He will have a lot more help this year.
June 27th, 2026 at 5:22 am
StPeteMatt … ‘Diaby is actually really good. Way above average starter.’
I agree with you 100% on that Matt. I also believe that having better players around him will help him become even more impactful than he’s been in our defense. And BTW, IF his performance improves dramatically this year, there’s a very good chance we won’t be able to afford him NEXT YEAR. But hey, that’s true of every player in the NFL so let’s take 1 year at a time.
I find it hard to analyze the true IMPACT of individual players, even those playing the same position, because of the above (so much of their documented performance is dependent on the quality of those around them, on the coaches they play for, the scheme they play in, etc). In the case of OLBs (and some others), one of the things I’ve found useful is to compare their ‘frequency of impact plays’.
I consider impact plays to be sacks, TFLs AND QB hits because in all 3 they’re having an impact on either the play outcome OR directly on the QB (those mount up IMO). I don’t include forced fumbles because they often seem to occur during sacks or TFLs, and those are already being included. Take the total of sacks, TFLs & QB hits and divide that into the number of defensive snaps the player has gotten and that number represents the number of defensive snaps it takes for the player to get one impact play.
Diaby’s example: He’s made 19 sacks, 38 TFLs & 47 QB hits (total of 104 impact plays) in his 3-year total of 2083 def snaps. That’s 1 impact play every 20.0 def snaps.
Compare him to JPP: He made 94.5 sacks, 127 TFLs & 167 QB hits (total of 388.5 impact plays) in his 15-year career total of 8354 def snaps. That’s 1 impact play every 21.5 def snaps.
Compare him to Shaq: He made 59 sacks, 73 TFLs & 125 QB hits (total of 257 impact plays) in his 10-year career total of 5380 def snaps. That’s 1 impact play every 20.9 def snaps.
So all 3 SHOULD be in the same discussion in terms of impact. Now look at our 3 other current OLBs with experience.
o Nelson: he’s made 21.5 sacks, 29 TFLs & 46 QB hits (total of 96.5 impact plays) in his 7-year career total of 2835 def snaps. That’s 1 impact play every 29.4 def snaps.
o Brasswell: he’s made 2.5 sacks, 5 TFLs & 12 QB hits (total of 19.5 impact plays) in his 2-year career total of 612 def snaps. That’s 1 impact play every 31.4 def snaps.
o Muhammad: he’s made 26 sacks, 36 TFLs & 58 QB hits (total of 120 impact plays) in his 8-year career total of 3620 def snaps. That’s 1 impact play every 30.2 def snaps.
All 3 of them are in the same 29-31 range (and that’s why they haven’t been starters?). Now look at a couple of the top OLB ‘beasts’:
o Micah Parsons: he’s made 65 sacks, 75 TFLs & 139 QB hits (total of 279 impact plays) in his 5-year career total of 4090 def snaps. That’s 1 impact play every 14.7 def snaps.
o Myles Garrett: he’s made 125.5 sacks, 149 TFLs & 239 QB hits (total of 513.5 impact plays) in his 9-year career total of 7021 def snaps. That’s 1 impact play every 13.7 def snaps.
Garrett & Parsons are obviously in the ‘elite’ category, and get paid BIG BUCKS for their impact on the field. YaYa is ‘next level’ IMO but with a very good year this year, he’ll move closer to their conversation and will be looking at a very nice second contract. HOPEFULLY it’s with the Bucs, but we’ll have a lot of UFAs this next off-season & unfortunately not all will get paid (by us at least).
June 27th, 2026 at 5:57 am
YaYa is a good player, but he’s not good enough to make those around him better. Bain we hope will be that player, YaYa is not, so far at least. Great players make those around them better. Good players need help around them to be great. YaYa is a good player.
June 27th, 2026 at 6:01 am
If he does the same thing over and over again and expects to get different results, our HC/DC is _ _ _ _ _ _!
June 27th, 2026 at 6:11 am
And Yes there is the evidence of the Putrid Pass Defense that we all have had to suffer through these last few years. Enough is enough. Go Bucs!!
June 27th, 2026 at 7:07 am
Defense Rules: great analysis, thanks!
June 27th, 2026 at 7:17 am
Ditto, that was awesome
June 27th, 2026 at 7:42 am
Thanks, Very eye opening DR. Makes me see that YaYa is better than I thought. Still not elite , but if he can get help this season 10 sacks is achievable. Braswell is another story…..lol.
June 27th, 2026 at 7:53 am
Some Bucs coaches/playersfront office don’t know when to keep their mouths shut. Hey YaYa, actions speak louder than words. Almost getting there is not good enough!
June 27th, 2026 at 8:07 am
Great break down DR. That took some work. Thank you
June 27th, 2026 at 8:08 am
Nice Analy D R ………. So let’s get a couple playas in the 15 to 20 range
I’d like to se Diabys sack analysis minus his rookie year !! I just don’t feel he is what winning F Ball is on third down .
June 27th, 2026 at 9:05 am
We should also remember that Bucs D ranked 5th last year against the run, 10th the year before, and 5th the year before that. Bowles defensive strategy is based on stopping the run and forcing the opposition to throw so that may have contributed some to the high pass defense numbers.
If the Bucs D can return to getting consistent pressure and sacks with the addition of Bain and Robinson and Muhammad maybe Bowles D can flourish?
June 27th, 2026 at 10:37 am
YaYa needs to talk less and instead work on his terrible pass rush moves. I wouldn’t be surprised to see YaYa pulled on pass plays for AQM to come in.
June 27th, 2026 at 10:41 am
I agree with the talking too much isn’t super smart crowd. You’re setting yourself up for failure and putting more pressure on yourself. I remember Sapp back in the day having a great year, then predicting he would be the sacks leader the following year. It didn’t work out that way and he had a disappointing season. Just saying…Don’t count your chickens before they hatch 🐤
June 27th, 2026 at 10:48 am
DR
Solid analysis
June 27th, 2026 at 10:59 am
DR, you are one of the reasons a like button would be good around these spaces.
June 27th, 2026 at 11:08 am
I heard Braswell is going to have a breakout season.
June 27th, 2026 at 11:16 am
Yeah Yaya, with Twocoach teaching regression techniques, maybe B-Rex can learn to almost sack a quarterback especially in crunch time. Maybe you can bust out of the league together.
June 27th, 2026 at 11:24 am
Although watching the HUGE gaps in the short middle of the defense drive me nuts, I take very little real insight from passing yardage stats.
The Bucs are known to be a very hard team to run the ball on and many teams make little effort to do it. They throw it far more than they run the ball so of course the passing yardage is going to be far higher against the Bucs.
Because this has become much more of a passing league, many defenses have adjusted, putting smaller quicker guys on the field. The problem with that is, when they go against a team that has a solid running game, those smaller guys struggle. Next thing you know, you’re a Superbowl champion with a meh QB because the opposing defense can’t stop the run.
Bowles has always been about stopping the run, much to the detriment of the passing game and if anything, the emphasis on bigger guys this year could exacerbate that trend. I guess we are all hoping the bigger guys do a far better job at getting to the QB this year. Otherwise, expect more of the same.
The far more telling stat is their red zone defense which was atrocious, finishing dead last in the NFL while allowing TDs on nearly 70% of opposing teams’ trips inside the 20 yard line. They were particularly bad in first and goal situations where teams scored a TD 90% of the time. That is the exact opposite of past Bucs bend but don’t break defenses.
June 27th, 2026 at 12:47 pm
“Bowles has always been about stopping the run, much to the detriment of the passing game and if anything, the emphasis on bigger guys this year could exacerbate that trend.”
The point of being able to discourage the run game, is to up the pass rush opportunities. The spin over the years has been teams chose to pass against us because it’s “easy” to talk pejoratively about Bowles as if he’s doing something archiac. When in reality it’s been a hallmark of his defense since the ‘19 install year and we’ve finished top 5-10 every single year with the exception of ‘22 iirc.
It’s not because they “rather pass” it’s about no wasting reps trying to do what most teams can’t be effective doing against us. Biggest difference between last year and other years is that there were some big plays that gashed us, but a lot of those explosives against us included a good amount of QB scrambles. That’s a containment problem, which can improve simply with guys being more disciplined in their reads, keeping their eyes in the backfield especially defending zone blocking.
Pass yards in comparison to rushing yards in regards to what our defense allows has always been skewed, and that’s exactly why we re-tooled the front with some size and players who tend to be explosive off the edge like Bain & AQM.
If Kancey can stay healthy, we’ll be asking Vita or anybody else who shares the field with him to shoot gaps on pass downs rather than having to 2-gap to create lanes for that 5th-6th man simulated pressure. Not saying we won’t, but with what we’ve added we shouldn’t have to RELY on sending extra in order to generate pressure.
Stopping the run doesn’t deter you from playing pass D well, it makes what the offense will try to do more frequently i.e. forcing them to beat you one dimensionally. Spin aside, that’s actually a benefit especially for the “just let them rush” crowd. You don’t force 30 throws/pass rush opportunities in-game when a team can beat you running the ball 18-25 times.
June 27th, 2026 at 12:50 pm
Yaya will NOT be doubled on 35% of his pass rush snaps this year…. That’s going to help
June 27th, 2026 at 12:55 pm
I wish RB all the best. He will find out that the NFL is not Division I.
June 27th, 2026 at 2:29 pm
Help what?
June 27th, 2026 at 2:46 pm
Warren Brooks Lynch … ‘Stopping the run doesn’t deter you from playing pass D well’.
Going back to our 2002 defense, our Run Defense ranked #5 in Rushing Yards Allowed and our Passing Defense ranked #1 in Passing Yards Allowed. So ya, I’d say it’s possible to do both well.
And yes, Sapp, Brooks & Lynch did kinda play key roles in accomplishing that. Maybe that’s why they’re all in the HOF?