ESPN: YaYa Diaby Will Have A Big Game Against New England
November 8th, 2025
Prediction.
Joe isn’t a huge stat guy but there are a couple of numberscrunchers whose insight Joe respects and values.
One of these men is Aaron Schatz, the former chieftain of Football Outsiders (RIP) and the creator of DVOA.
Why does Joe respect Schatz so much? Even though he’s a stats guy, he is not a slave to stats. And he’s not pushing some dumbarse grades as the end-all, be-all to football analysis.
Joe has heard/read Schatz refer to a stat and then add something along the lines of, Well, this doesn’t make sense. Open-minded Schatz always relies on a his eyes in the final analysis.
So whenever Schatz types something, Joe pays attention.
In an ESPN preview of tomorrow’s Patriots-Bucs game, Schatz doesn’t like the way New England rookie left tackle Will Campbell is blocking. Combined with Patriots quarterback Drake Maye’s habit of giving up sacks and YaYa Diaby heating up in the past two games, Schatz predicts a big day for YaYa tomorrow.
Bold prediction: Bucs linebacker Yaya Diaby will have multiple sacks. Patriots left tackle Will Campbell is currently 56th among qualifying tackles with a pass block win rate of 83.8%, while taking sacks is Maye’s biggest weakness (34 in 2025). Only the Titans’ Cam Ward (38) has more.
In the past three games, YaYa has three sacks.
If YaYa gets a sack or two early, Joe is confident the Patriots will adjust to get Campbell help, and that ought to loosen things up for other Bucs to get after Maye.