When Single-Blocked, YaYa Diaby Gets Near Quarterbacks
June 22nd, 2026
Dangerous man when facing a single blocker.
Joe considers quarterback pressures to be horseshoes and hand grenades stats.
It is the only time “close” counts for something. Maybe.
Pressures is nothing more than “almost” getting the job done. It doesn’t get the job done. Joe maintains pressures do not faze superior quarterbacks and if the Super Bowl is truly a team goal, Joe is very confident that sometime along the way in the playoffs, a team will face a superior quarterback.
Nowhere else in football is almost getting the job done celebrated so. You hear anyone jump up and down and holler about an almost-catch, an almost-tackle, an almost-pick, or an almost-fumble recovery?
But with quarterback pressures, failure is applauded and deemed an asset.
Well, to be fair, Joe guesses a pressure means a player at least sheds a block. It’s a step. So in that respect, Bucs outside linebacker YaYa Diaby is showing some progress.
Per senior NFL researcher Tony Holzman-Escareno, very few edge rushers (five to be precise) get more pressures than YaYa when they are single-teamed.
So what’s this tell Joe? That YaYa needs help. That he needs other defensive linemen to lure traffic away from him and eat up blockers.
That’s why the addition of rookie Rueben Bain and the health of Calijah Kancey are so important. If Bain develops like so many think he can, and if Kancey can stay on the field, that should free up YaYa to get single-covered.
And if YaYa gets enough pressures, sooner or later, an accident will happen and he will get a sack. That’s a whole lot of work, wishful thinking, hope and draft capital just to reach the goal of the quarterback lying prone on the turf.