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Perspective On The Bucs’ Edge Rushers

July 16th, 2025

Don’t you dare say the Bucs have poor depth at edge rusher.

A reasoned and seasoned look at that depth painted a rosy picture.

If you ask former Bucs scout and Jets personnel chief and linebackers coach Pat Kirwan, the Bucs have the best No. 4 edge rusher in the NFC South.

Big advantage to Chris Braswell, Kirwan barked.

In a deep dive on the position this week, Kirwan noted the Falcons and Panthers have rookies in that role, and the Saints feature third-year man Isaiah Foskey, who has played very little in his career.

Braswell got 329 defensive snaps as a Bucs rookie last season, more than double Foskey’s two-year total. At least Braswell made a couple of plays, Kirwan said.

What about at No. 3 edge rusher? Well, Kirwan gave veteran Bucs outside linebacker Anthony Nelson a perfect score in his grading system for teams’ No. 3 edge rushers.

It was at the No. 2 and No. 1 edge rusher spot where Kirwan took out his red pen.

Yaya Diaby, he said, wasn’t good enough as a pass rusher and was among the reasons Todd Bowles felt compelled to blitz so often. Kirwan almost sounded nauseous when referencing Diaby’s sack rate being less than 1 percent pass plays.

As for newcomer No. 1 Haason Reddick, Kirwan put a lot of his 2025 potential success on Bowles. In short, Kirwan believes the Bucs signed Reddick because they believe he can be the star player he was from 2020-2023. So it’s on Bowles to get him back to that status or close to it.

Kirwan added that Reddick had “a terrible year” in 10 games with the Jets last season and had “strange behavior to say the least.”

Joe just wants to see the Bucs improve a step in their edge pass rush, a little more consistency and an additional 10 sacks from the position. That’s really not much to ask.