If there was a weakness in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense last season, it was their inconsistent pass rush. While their pass defense was generally poor, their inability to get after the passer was a key contributor to those struggles.
The team hopes developing young edge rusher Yaya Diaby will help fix those concerns.
Diaby may have recorded just 4.5 sacks last season, but his career total of 12 shows a player who is a Swiss Army Knife on the defensive side of the ball. With the addition of Haason Reddick to take some of the pressure off, Diaby should be in for a big third season.
CBS Sports writer Jared Dubin agrees. Dubin even called Diaby the most underrated linebacker in the NFL.
"At first glance, you'd think Diaby took a step backward last year, dropping from 7.5 sacks as a rookie to 4.5 as a sophomore," Dubin wrote. "But that overlooks the incredible rate at which Diaby generated pressures in 2024. His 65 total sacks, hits, and hurries ranked 11th in the NFL, and his 15.3% pressure rate was 18th-best out of 277 players that rushed the passer 100 times or more, according to Tru Media."
It is true ...
Sacks aren't always an indicator of how good of an edge rusher a player is. Diaby is a clear example of that. His pressure rate alone shows a player on the precipice of a breakout.
And that is what makes him an underrated player - maybe the underrated player - going into 2025.