One of the most fun stories from the Buccaneers’ Super Bowl win a few years ago came from Jason Pierre-Paul.
The high-octane edge rusher simply did not want to come off the field. He hated resting and it’s why even at 31 years old he played nearly 1,000 snaps in that 2020 season, plus four postseason games.
Bucs sacks king Shaq Barrett also played a hefty load of snaps in his first two Bucs seasons (2019 and 2020) before cutting back in recent years.
While Shaq, now with the Dolphins, won a ring on what essentially was a two-rusher team, he was adamant while speaking with MiamiDolphins.com last week that teams need three edge rushers. Shaq cited fatigue in games and the need for the rotational third edge rusher to have as much juice as the starters in spot duty.
The Bucs’ depth chart at edge rusher now has YaYa Diaby on top as he enters his second season followed by either Joe Tryon-Shoyinka and Anthony Nelson. Ironically, Nelson and Tryon-Shoyinka get to quarterbacks at nearly the exact same substandard rate, if you consider their total quarterback hits and sacks against their career snap counts.
Hearing Shaq talk about needing three pass rushers had Joe pacing the halls of JoeBucsFan.com world headquarters mumbling that the Bucs don’t even have two. However, Joe has to be real. The Lions landed in the NFC Championship game with only one legitimate pass rusher on their roster.
Perhaps the Bucs front office can talk Detroit into taking Tryon-Shoyinka off their hands for a draft pick, much like they did Carlton Davis earlier this month?
