The Buzz Surrounding Yaya Diaby In 2025

Let’s put the spotlight on Bucs outside linebacker Yaya Diaby.

With the 2024 season firmly in the rearview mirror and the pre-draft process, free agency, the draft itself, OTAs and mini-camp also behind us, it’s time to ramp up the excitement for training camp and then, of course, the Bucs’ 50th season. As we did last summer, we’ll spend the weeks leading up to training camp focusing on some storylines and narratives surrounding some of Tampa Bay’s biggest stars in 2025.

So far, we’ve worked our way through storylines for nine players on offense: quarterback Baker Mayfield, running backs Bucky Irving and Rachaad White, wide receivers Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Jalen McMillan, tight end Cade Otton and offensive tackles Tristan Wirfs and Luke Goedeke.

Since moving over to the defensive side of the ball, we’ve gone through storylines for defensive lineman Calijah Kancey and nose tackle Vita Vea. Today, we keep it going with a look at third-year outside linebacker Yaya Diaby.

Will Yaya Diaby Reach His Double-Digit Sack Potential In 2025?

The first two years of Yaya Diaby’s NFL career have served as good building blocks for the young pass rusher. After being drafted in the third round of the 2023 NFL Draft, Diaby was a rotational piece early on as a rookie. But as he began to rack up more and more sacks and flash signs of his immense potential as the season went on, he eventually unseated Joe Tryon-Shoyinka as a starter on the Bucs defense.

By the end of his rookie season, Diaby was Tampa Bay’s leading sacker with 7.5. He also had 12 tackles for loss, a forced fumble and two fumble recoveries on his way to a fifth-place finish in NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year voting. In a short span of time, the former Louisville Cardinal established himself as a key piece the team believed it could build its pass rush around.

While his rookie season was a building block in the way of proving he could rack up production and be an impactful player in the NFL, Diaby’s second season in 2024 was a building block in terms of establishing some consistency.

Diaby’s sack total went down to 4.5 in 2024. On the surface, that looks like a decline in play after he had a quick 7.5 sacks over fewer snaps as a rookie. But looking deeper at the full scope of his 2024 performance, there were tangible improvements made to his game. It goes beyond taking his tackle for loss total from 12 to 13 and his quarterback hits from eight to 20. It’s the consistency with which he got to the quarterback that proved to be a big step forward.

After only posting pass rush win rate well below 10% in 2023, Diaby finished with a 17.4% pass rush win rate in 2024. Not only that, but his total pressures went up from 30 as a rookie to 70 last year.

In 2025, it’s time for Diaby to take the next step, which is putting those building blocks together and reaching his double-digit sack potential. He has the physical tools to do it, and he’s shown a drastic improvement on the mental side of the game as well, according to head coach and defensive play-caller Todd Bowles.

“I’ve seen him grow mentally, understanding how people are trying to block him,” Bowles said earlier this offseason. “The first year, he was just trying to run through everything and we kind of let him go because he was a bull in a China shop. Last year, he was more strategic in how he rushed the passer. Despite the sack numbers, he still was our most prolific pass rusher as far as getting pressures. [We] just expect him to finish those plays this year.”

It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Diaby finish those plays more often in 2025 and put everything together in a big way. If he does, he may very well turn into the Bucs’ first double-digit sacker since 2021 when Shaq Barrett, a mentor of Diaby’s, finished the season with 10.

How Much Will Yaya Diaby Benefit From Haason Reddick’s Presence?

One of the biggest changes to the Bucs defense in 2025 is the addition of veteran pass rusher Haason Reddick. Not only should he help Tampa Bay create a better four-man pass rush than it had a year ago, but he could do a ton for Yaya Diaby, who will line up on the other side of the defense from him.

The benefits of Reddick’s presence to Diaby are two-fold. For one, Reddick is a savvy veteran who has proven to be a pass-rushing menace over the course of his career. He has 59 career sacks and 102 quarterback hits to his name in his eight years as a pro, and he had a four-year stretch between 2020 and 2023 in which he racked up 12.5, 11, 16 and 11 sacks in each year, respectively.

Having that kind of pass rusher working in tandem off the edge will be new for Diaby. With respect to Joe Tryon-Shoyinka, it came to a point where the pass rush from Tampa Bay’s outside linebackers got to be one-dimensional. Tryon-Shoyinka never reached the level he needed to be at to create the pass rushing duo that the Bucs have been looking to rediscover since the duo of Shaq Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul helped them win a Super Bowl in 2020.

Having a healthy, focused Reddick as a key part of the rush on one side could create a lot of opportunities for Diaby on the other. Of course, this hinges on Reddick returning to form after a disjointed and disappointing one-year sting with the Jets. But the Bucs believe they’re getting more of the 2020-2023 version of Reddick than the player he was when he got a late start to the 2024 season due to a hold-out.

If Reddick can elevate one side of Tampa Bay’s pass rush, that’s only going to help Diaby. As he looks to put everything together in his third NFL season, No. 0 will have more established support around him, and that could be a huge deal.

The other plus to bringing in Reddick and pairing him with Diaby is that the 26-year-old pass rusher will get to learn from a guy who has played at a high level and for a long time in the NFL.

“Just watching film on him previously, the guy can get to the quarterback and that’s what I want to do this year is get to the quarterback,” Diaby said in April. “So, I’m just going to pick his brain and just get a little intel on what he sees and what he’s been coached his whole career and just feed off of that.”

Reddick, a 30-year-old, ninth-year veteran said last month that he’s big on doing everything he can to help the young players around him.

“I want to see everybody win. I want to see everybody do great,” Reddick said. “I’ve been able to be in this league for a long time. I’ve been able to have great success here and I just want that for the young guys as well. I want everybody to get a chance to get their shine, everybody get a chance to become that guy – become ‘him’ for their team. That’s [Yaya Diaby] right now, and that could be some other young guys as well.

“I’m doing everything that I can. If I see anything – me and [Larry] Foote, we’re just doing the best that we can to try to teach these guys and like I said, continue to try to propel their career forward in the direction they want to go.”

Can Yaya Diaby Keep Ascending As A Young Leader For Bucs Defense?

As much as Yaya Diaby will be looking to learn from a guy like Haason Reddick, he’s also been teaching Reddick plenty since the veteran arrived in Tampa Bay.

“He’s getting into that – I think it’s his third year now, he’s transitioning into that stage where you can see he’s becoming a vet. You can see he’s starting to understand the game,” Reddick said last month. “To be honest, he’s been helping me out on a little bit of things as far as, ‘Look, you got this on this play, we got that on these,’ as far as the new installs. You can see that as young as he is, he’s transitioning into being a vet.

“He’s one of those guys that I was talking about, getting a workout in with a couple other young guys yesterday. He’s doing everything the right way. As long as he continues that, he’ll continue to progress and to go in the direction that he wants to go.”

That’s just another example of Diaby growing into one of the young leaders of the Bucs defense. While Lavonte David, Vita Vea and (to an extent) Antoine Winfield Jr. are the elder statesmen of the Tampa Bay defense, guys like Diaby, Calijah Kancey and Zyon McCollum are next in line to step up and lead. It’s something Diaby can certainly do alongside Reddick in his own position group.

At the outside linebacker position alone, there are some younger, up-and-coming pass rushers who Diaby can help along and lead for years to come. As much as Reddick helps, too, Diaby is more established in Tampa in terms of knowing Todd Bowles’ scheme and the defensive players around him. Reddick is also only on a one-year contract, while Diaby is under contract for at least one more year after this one. He’s bound to be a helpful resource for a second-year guy like 23-year-old Chris Braswell, as well as rookie fourth-round pick David Walker.

Not to mention, if Diaby does indeed reach his double-digit sack potential this year and cement himself as a foundational piece in Tampa Bay’s defense, being a leader is something that comes along with that. He’s already done a good job of being a natural leader early in his Buccaneer career, but this year will provide him with another opportunity to grow and become one of the key voices on the defensive side of the ball.