Getty Yaya Diaby (left) and Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles
Todd Bowles has coached a lot of defense in his time in and around football fields, well before his tenure in the NFL and as the coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. You can trace his roots back to 1997, when he was the secondary coach and defensive coordinator at Div. II Morehouse College. When it comes to developing a raw 24-year-old rookie like linebacker Yaya Diaby, Bowles likes to think he knows how to do the job.
But questions on that subject were raised this week after Diaby played only 21 snaps, or 35% of the plays, in Week 11 against the 49ers. He made those snaps count—he had four tackles, including 2.0 sacks, giving him three sacks in the last two weeks.
The player who starts in front of Diaby, Joe Tyron-Shoyinka. meanwhile, played 34 snaps but had no sacks or tackles or … well, anything.
When asked about the reason for not playing Diaby more, Bowles, who seemingly never changes his demeanor, was at least a bit defensive.
“We do different things a lot of time with a lot of people on there. We don’t have a justification for it when we rotate our guys,” he said. “Our stats are going to always look different for different guys. Yaya had a lot of production yesterday, [and] I’m happy he did. He plays a lot and he’ll play more for us.”
#Bucs HC Todd responds to the justification of playing Joe Tryon-Shoyinka more than YaYa Diaby despite JTS having no statistics in the game and Diaby recording 4 tackles and 2 sacks.
Todd Bowles Right to Limit Yaya Diaby
And Bowles has a point on Yaya Diaby. He does make some impressive plays, and there is a reason the Buccaneers chose him with a third-round pick in last year’s draft—he played with athleticism and power. But he got no collegiate offers coming out of high school because he was raw and thin, and because of his relative lack of experience, he is still learning.
“He’s a power rusher lacking an instinctive approach to beat better NFL tackles, but his lateral quickness and short-area burst make Diaby perfect for a twisting/gaming front,” NFL.com draft analyst Lance Zierlein wrote of him.
Bowles also rejected the notion that Diaby showed he had a “hot hand” and that the Bucs should have stuck with him because of it. It’s the NFL, not the NBA, Bowles pointed out.
“He didn’t get [his sacks] all in the first quarter like when we say, ‘Let’s stay with him, he’s on a 50-point night,’ like basketball,” Bowles said. “He got them throughout the game and he got them. Week in and week out, he’s been making some splash plays, but understanding the scheme is way more important of what we have to do as well, and he’s coming along with that. We’re fine at the pace we have him in, and we have a plan for him.”
Buccaneers Defense Goes Beyond State
Indeed, it’s not always wise to size up the impact and quality of a defensive player’s contribution by stats alone. That was one point Todd Bowles was making. Defensive stats can be an indicator that a player’s done something right, but an absence of stats, as in Tyron-Shoyinka’s case, does not mean the job is not being done properly.
Tyron-Shoyinka, of course, was the team’s first-round pick in 2021, out of Washington. According to Pro Football Focus, which grades players based on every play they’re on the field, Tyron-Shoinka and Daiby both have very good games, and Shoyinka actually played a small bit better.
PFF graded Tyron-Shoyinka at 72.1 in Week 11, and Yaya Diaby at 69.9.
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