Yaya Diaby is developing into a pass-rushing force

Can Yaya Diaby be the missing piece in the Bucs’ defense? The team has lacked a high-end No. 1 edge rusher for the last three seasons.

Tampa Bay’s defense from 2019 to 2023 rank Ninth overall in drop-back EPA/play allowed and eighth in success rate. But starting in 2022, after the departure and eventual departure of Jason Pierre-Paul and the post-injury Shaq Barrett, those numbers began to decline. Over the past two seasons, the Bucs have ranked 18th in drop-back EPA/games allowed and 12th in win percentage.

Former Bucs OLB Shaq Barrett and Titans QB Will Levis – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The missing ingredient in those years was a high-end edge rusher who could force quarterbacks to speed up, make mistakes and break up plays. Head coach Todd Bowles attempted to compensate for the lack of a dominant lead by applying artificial pressure in the form of blitzes. Bowles has always been and always will be a blitz head coach, but the last two years he has had to blitz out of necessity and not as a complement that complements his defense.

The problems came to a head last year when the Bucs ranked third in the NFL in blitz rate at 40.4%, but 23rd in pressure rate at 33.8% and sack rate at 7.0% 15th place.

Last year’s top group consisted of a declining Barrett, who would retire last season, a disappointing Joe Tryon-Shoyinka, freshman Yaya Diaby and veteran jack-of-all-trades and master of none Anthony Nelson. The group as a whole struggled to generate consistent pressure to match the pressure the team received from nose tackle Vita Vea and rookie sensation Calijah Kancey at center.

Yaya Diaby’s development

Enter Yaya Diaby, who has received a lot fanfare in his rookie season primarily due to his 7.5 sacks. But when you peel back the curtain, his production was dependent on the scheme rather than a byproduct of his dominance over the competition. His eight quarterback takedowns included two chases on scrambles/rollouts, an unblocked backside rush and two loops on stunts. Only three replays were true one-on-one wins. Additionally, his 26 pressures ranked 1,277th in the NFL and his pressure rate of 8.4% ranked 94th among all qualified defenders, according to NextGenStats.

Bucs OLB YaYa Diaby and DT Calijah Kancey – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

I went back and reviewed every pass rush snap from Diaby’s season and the best way to describe him was a bull in a china shop. He had neither a technique nor a plan on how he was going to beat the opposing offensive players. His hope was to overwhelm his opponent with direct speed and rushes and try to win with pure power that went through the linesman’s chest. And that made sense since he wasn’t given many opportunities to play a truly elite role in college.

Louisville asked Diaby to primarily play a hybrid interior role as a 4i/5t lineman. His job was often to play strong and long and thus dig into the pocket. He never developed true pass rush technique in college.

Last year it became clear that he didn’t really understand how to defeat individual enemies other than running through them. And that uncertainty led to him finishing 0.92 seconds below the league average. The results were disappointing because this is difficult to achieve at the NFL level, where every player is big, strong, athletic and fast.

But there was flickering. From time to time, Diaby would execute a push-pull or accidentally fall into an inside rush lane, giving him an extra path to the quarterback, or he would attempt a chop. By the end of the season, Diaby had added a rip move to his arsenal on a fairly regular basis.

While Diaby’s athleticism is impressive and gives him a solid base skill set to build upon, he lacks the elasticity and ankle flexibility to make a living as a pass rusher without having a sophisticated technical arsenal to complement him. Fast forward to this season and Diaby has reached a higher level. Here is a small excerpt of his quantified improvements per NGS:

• Exit is 0.04 seconds faster (0.88)
• The print rate is 5.5% better (13.9%).
• Print time is 0.36 seconds faster (2.51)

And these improvements are no coincidence. They are a byproduct of an improvement in Diaby’s pass-rush process.

Yaya Diaby’s Inside Counter

Bucs OLB Yaya Diaby – Photo by: USA Today

The NFL’s best edge rushers force opposing tackles to defend them both vertically and laterally. Whether it’s a cross chop, a club rip, a spin or a pull slide, most pass rushers need to be able to win inside to increase their ability to win outside. When a tackle faces the possibility of inside movement, he shortens his vertical set and exposes his outside shoulder to make cornering easier.

Diaby has found his inside move and is using it to his advantage. The great thing about this development is that Diaby is only weaponizing what he was already good at, driving with speed and power. But the key difference this year is knowing what to do after step one.

As soon as he performs a vertical strike by pushing his opponent backwards, he immediately takes advantage of it knowing that his next move is indoors, where there is usually daylight he can take advantage of. An additional advantage comes from the quarterback typically wanting to step into the pocket to deliver passes.

How has Yaya Diaby developed into one of the NFL’s most consistent pressure rushers this season? He added an inside pull. Using his length and strength, he creates a vertical shift and then dives inside to find the quickest route to the QB. pic.twitter.com/yrAosnQV9e

—Joshua Queipo (@josh_queipo) September 30, 2024

The interesting thing about Diaby is that his inside counter is quickly becoming his preferred way to win and his first line of attack. And tackles take notice. This then allows him to win at the top of the arc with speed and a much more effective rip move to the outside than he had in his rookie season.

And because attacking inside quickly becomes his best move, he can use outside tackles as his “counter” when inside tackles are cheating. pic.twitter.com/90iq664nYm

—Joshua Queipo (@josh_queipo) September 30, 2024

Where are Yaya Diaby’s sacks?

Yaya Diaby converted 31% of his pressures into sacks last year. That was an unsustainably high rate. But conversely, this year’s conversion rate of 6.25% is unsustainable. Why couldn’t Diaby translate all that pressure into sack production? A lot of that has to do with the style of quarterbacks he’s competed against this season. Three of the four passers the Bucs faced were mobile in their style of play, opting to save the pocket when they sense the heat coming their way.

Commanders QB Jayden Daniels and Bucs OLB Yaya Diaby – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Since Diaby most often wins inside, his target often runs away from him instead of into him. Jaden Daniels, Bo Nix and Jalen Hurts all have a bail element to their pocket awareness, which has often led Diaby to reach for air and clear rush lanes for quarterbacks to make plays with their feet. But all is not lost for the young outside linebacker, who got his first sack of the season on Sunday against Hurts and also forced a fumble.

This should even out over the course of the season. In Week 5, Diaby and the Bucs face an immobile quarterback in Atlanta’s Kirk Cousins, followed by New Orleans’ Derek Carr in Week 6. Of the 13 games remaining on the Bucs’ schedule, only three quarterbacks with a preference remain To mess up the bag breaking deposits. They are Lamar Jackson of the Ravens, Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs and Daniel Jones of the Giants. And Jones may not yet be New York’s starter when they face the Bucs in Week 12.

Through four games, Diaby has totaled 22 pressures, per Pro Football Focus, tied for fourth in the NFL with Dallas’ Micah Parsons. He has a pass-rush productivity rate of 11.6, which ranks ninth in the league.

Diaby rises. And while I didn’t believe his production level reached that of a true premier edge rusher, I can’t ignore his performance, which is right up there with the best of the best in the first quarter of this young season.

And if he can reach those lofty heights, it will return a dimension to the Bucs defense that they haven’t had in several years. This, in turn, will give Todd Bowles a new layer to incorporate into his psychotic, pressure-packed scheme.

And that’s why I’m here.

Yaya Diaby’s (#0) 4 pressures from Week 4 against PHI.

One area where I thought the Bucs could have success was overloading the left side of the PHI OL, dictating PHI’s protection and ISO Diaby on RT Fred Johnson to give him quality 1v1s .

Check out the last repeat. pic.twitter.com/YvuaKA1nMD

—Joshua Queipo (@josh_queipo) September 30, 2024