Bucs Do Well With Almost-Sacks From The Edge
October 25th, 2025
Pressures!
Joe has screamed and hollered for the Bucs to buy/trade/develop a double-digit edge rusher so much that Joe is worn out. Hoisted the white flag. Gave up.
“This Joe” firmly believes that unless or until Bucs coach Todd Bowles begins to value and take seriously an edge rush, only then will it ever come about.
And no, Joe does not sip from the cup of those who profess pressures to be the art of defense.
It’s the football version of exit velocity in baseball. Doesn’t mean a damn thing, something for the nerds to rub their palms together over and get amped for the night’s Dungeons and Dragons foray.
Joe refers to pressures as “almost-sacks.” When a guy gets close and fails to get a sack, he can always say, “*Hey Mom, I got close. I got a pressure! Pay me! Ain’t I good?*“
In roughly 7 percent of all drives where a quarterback gets sacked an offense scores a touchdown. Simply put, sacks are drive killers.
Pressures? Good quarterbacks aren’t phased by them. And in the playoffs, sooner or later, you likely will face a good quarterback. Maybe more than one.
But, for those into new-age football, this is for you: The Bucs this year are getting strong pressure from their outside linebackers. Wee! By way of NextGen Stats, the Bucs’ media realations staff shared that YaYa Diaby and Haason Reddick rank in the top-10 in quarterback pressures. Through Week 7, Diaby was sixth with a pressure rate of 16.3 percent. Reddick was ninth (15.7 percent). Each player on the list had to have a minimum of 150 rush snaps.
So yeah, in the spirit of Halloween (you should see all the people in New Orleans dressed up for Halloween) the Bucs’ edge rushers are scaring opponents. Boo!
Sacks from the edge? Well…
Joe knows the only two times the Bucs won a Super Bowl, they had a ferocious edge rush both times.