Getty Todd Bowles (right) coached Jason Pierre-Paul as the defensive coordinator from
Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Jason Pierre-Paul hasn’t played a down anywhere in 2023, but the two-time Super Bowl champion doesn’t consider his career done.
“Even now, I’m a free agent,” Pierre-Paul said on “The Pivot Podcast” on Tuesday, October 10.
“I’m trying to reach 100 [career] sacks,” he added. “That’s the goal I want, and haven’t been given the opportunity.”
Pierre-Paul, who has 94.5 career sacks, had his last opportunity with the Baltimore Ravens last year when the Bucs didn’t re-sign him in 2022 free agency. He tallied three sacks in 14 games for the Raven, and Pierre-Paul believes he could jump back with an NFL team.
“The transition for me is easy,” Pierre-Paul said. “So, when I do get the call, or when I got the call, it’s like — okay, football wants me, they want my talent to show these [younger] individuals how to do it. I’m going to be honest, I don’t watch film like that, but I can tell you, I’ve been in this game long enough to know; guys ain’t tackling how they used to tackle, guys ain’t running how they used to run, everything is changing. So, what the vets know, you just gotta teach it to these kids [and] hopefully they understand it and grasp it.”
Pierre-Paul: ‘Business is Business’
Pierre-Paul had a one-year contract with Ravens, and the team opted not to re-sign him. The year before in Tampa, Pierre-Paul regressed amid injury in 12 games played.
“Business is business,” Pierre-Paul said about Baltimore. “You want the young guys to go out there, just make sure they know how to stop the run. Don’t send me out there to [only] play first and second down. I’ll do it, but [when] third down come through … it’s going to take me [a few plays] to get warmed up for nobody to stop me.”
Aside from an injury-riddled 2021 in Tampa, his four years with the Bucs otherwise went well as he tallied 126 solo tackles, 33 sacks, three fumble recoveries, eight forced fumbles, 14 pass deflections, and two interceptions. Pierre-Paul made the Pro Bowl in 2020, the same year he helped the Bucs win a Super Bowl.
J.P.P. Won’t ‘Chill’ Amid Non-NFL Venture
Where he would land remains unknown, and the Bucs are among the teams with linebacker injuries. For now, Pierre-Paul will continue with his latest off-field venture.
“I’m still doing things [outside of football],” Pierre-Paul said on the podcast. “I’m renovating houses, I got businesses going on, and that keeps my mind off things. You know my mom told me — ‘hey son, you need to chill. Like, you always doing something’— but that’s been me my whole life. … It’s in me. This is something that I didn’t learn, it’s just in me.”
Pierre-Paul won’t “chill” on finding a niche in the NFL again, either. He expects a team to value his experience and skills.
“I’ve been through too much for a person to tell me what I can’t do,” Pierre-Paul said. “So, I’m reaching for that 100 sacks. [And] hopefully, one day I am a Hall of Famer.”