Bucs OLB Yaya Diaby Wins Top Weekly Award

Yaya Diaby finished the regular season on a high note, saving his best performance for the Bucs’ season finale. Diaby was a backfield menace on Sunday afternoon, setting career-highs with four tackles for a loss and quarterback hits. Diaby added in a sack to complete his stat-sheet stuffing.

After struggling to string together sacks throughout the year, the second-year outside linebacker now has 2.5 sacks along with 10 pressures across his past three games.

While he only finished with 4.5 sacks in the regular season, he still joined some elite company for what he has been able to do as a defensive disruptor.

Last month, Diaby spoke with Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds about how he was not happy with the lack of sacks he had.

“Earlier in the year I did let that get to me because I’m like, ‘Dang, I’m kind of doing everything right but it’s just not adding up,’” Diaby said then. “I mean, I still got guys like Calijah [Kancey] and Vita [Vea] making plays off the pressure that I’m getting so it’s not a total loss. But at the end of the day, like you said, [sacks] are what get you paid. That’s just something you can look and grow from so that’s all it is.”

He has grown and shown plenty of improvement this year rushing the passer and generating pressures.

In fact, he finished ninth among edge rushers with a career-high 65 pressures this year, according to Pro Football Focus. Seeing those pressures result in more quarterback takedowns is a promising development the Bucs will be hoping continues in the postseason.

His next test?

Bringing down Commanders rookie dual-threat quarterback Jayden Daniels.