INTRO: I was a part of two very informative and very important interviews this week. Bucs head coach Todd Bowles spoke for 30 minutes at the NFL Annual Meeting in West Palm Beach, Fla. and was actually very revealing for the second straight time this offseason. The first being at the NFL Scouting Combine.

The second interview was with Bucs outside linebacker Yaya Diaby, who is entering his third season in Tampa Bay. Diaby joined the Pewter Report Podcast on Thursday for an entire hour and said a lot of newsworthy things and was incredibly insightful. This SR’s Fab 5 will highlight some of the most interesting things Bowles and Diaby had to say. Enjoy!

FAB 1. Todd Bowles Has The Full Support Of The Bucs Organization

If you don’t like Todd Bowles, well, you need to get over it.

Bowles has more support from Bucs ownership and within the Bucs brass than ever coming off a 10-win season and a three-point loss to the Commanders in the Wild Card playoff game.

Bucs GM Jason Licht, co-owners Darcie Glazer Kassewitz and Joel Glazer, HC Todd Bowles and former HC Bruce Arians – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

That was my key takeaway from this year’s NFL Annual Meeting earlier this week in talking to multiple sources.

The Bucs organization is in lockstep with Bowles, who pledged to make some serious changes and improvements with how he does things in 2025 to help the team go further in the playoffs and reach the Super Bowl. And that’s exactly what he’s done.

Bowles has shuffled his coaching staff this offseason, putting Larry Foote back at outside linebackers coach and re-hiring inside linebackers coach Mike Caldwell, who helped Tampa Bay win a Super Bowl in 2020 and win 13 games in 2021. And he moved George Edwards out of the role of outside linebackers coach and into the role of pass game coordinator because he’s more of a strategist than he is a position coach. I applaud all of these moves and believe they will pay off for the defense in 2025.

Bowles also addressed his shortcomings as a game management coach. He’s struggled with timeout usage and managing fourth downs over the years, and hired an experienced analytics expert in Zach Beistline to help him on game days from the coaches box. A fantastic hire by Bowles.

Bowles wants to get more out of his four-man pass rush up front so he can blitz when he wants to rather than needing to do so with great regularity to generate pressure. He and general manager Jason Licht lured two-time Pro Bowler Haason Reddick, who posted double-digit sacks four straight seasons from 2020-2023, to Tampa Bay in free agency to help in that regard.

Bowles is operating with more confidence and a greater sense of urgency this year than I’ve ever seen before. And I love that.

This offseason, he’s even called out some of his own players out of sheer accountability, which he hasn’t done in the past, and is sounding more and more like former Bucs head coach Bruce Arians, who is Bowles’ mentor. And I love that, too.

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles and Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds – Photo by: Bailey Adams/PR

Bowles and Licht even clashed a bit over the team’s current depth at cornerback at the NFL Annual Meeting. Licht said he felt better about the depth after re-signing Bryce Hall and adding Kindle Vildor. Bowles disagreed, and he’s well within his right to do so.

Both men know that the Bucs will draft at least one more cornerback – perhaps two – in a few weeks to challenge Jamel Dean for the starting role and add more talent to the position.

With Liam Coen on the verge of going to Jacksonville to become the Jaguars head coach, the Glazers and Licht had the chance to replace Bowles with Coen if they wanted to. But the organization valued the super tight-knit team chemistry in the locker room and the progress the Bucs have made in the regular season, going from eight wins in 2022 to nine wins in 2023 and 10 wins last year.

The Bucs valued Bowles being a leader of men, and rightly recognized that the fall of Tampa Bay’s defense last year was due to an unreal amount of injuries, especially in the secondary. Adding better, more experienced depth in the 2025 offseason could help bolster the unit and allow Bowles to do what he does best as a play-caller, rather than scramble to find DBs off the street to plug into the lineup.

I’ve said it before – I love everything Todd Bowles has said and done this offseason. And even wrote an entire SR’s Fab 5 column last week on how he’s winning the offseason. I got confirmation in West Palm Beach that while expectations are high for him in 2025, the team’s belief in Bowles has never been higher.

With that said, let’s get to some newsworthy things that Bowles and one of his best defenders, Yaya Diaby, said this week.

FAB 2. Todd Bowles Wants Bucs Offense To Keep Ascending

Bucs OC Josh Grizzard – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

You might think that Todd Bowles wants this to be defensive draft in Tampa Bay this year.

You would be correct to think that – sort of.

In his 30-minute sit down interview at the NFL Annual Meeting in West Palm Beach, Fla., Bowles was all in favor of drafting offensive players – even with premium pick – if they would help light up the scoreboard.

“Being a defensive coach, I’ve learned that you win by scoring points,” Bowles said. “I don’t ever want to bypass a very good offensive player. I can figure things out enough on defense to keep us competitive. I would like to have some defensive players if that presented itself, but by no means will I bypass a very good offensive player just to satisfy my needs on defense.

“We can figure out how to keep the score down, but you can’t figure out a way to keep scoring points, especially if your horses go down. You can never have enough horses on offense. But, yes, I’d like to add some pieces [on defense] if that’s what you’re asking me, but whether they come in the first [round] or whether they come in the middle [rounds], remains to be seen.”

Bowles is referring to a stretch of games from Week 7-9 when the Bucs were without star wide receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, both of whom were injured in Tampa Bay’s 41-31 loss to Baltimore on Monday Night Football. Godwin was lost for the season with a dislocated ankle and Evans missed three and a half games with a bad hamstring injury.

Texas WR Matthew Golden – Photo by: USA Today

The Bucs were even without Jalen McMillan, the team’s No. 3 receiver, in a 30-24 overtime loss at Kansas City in Week 9. Tampa Bay went 0-3 in those games and slumped to 4-6 heading into the Week 11 bye before getting Evans back in Week 12.

Adding another quality wide receiver in the draft who could eventually develop into a starter might not be a bad idea for Tampa Bay.

“We were very good on offense – it doesn’t mean we don’t have needs,” Bowles said. “We can get better in a lot of areas and if there’s a guy that can help us get better, we’re going to take him. You don’t bypass him because he’s great and you’re already loaded – you keep loading up and you kind of go from there.”

Bowles knows that the 2025 Bucs have a chance of being like the 2024 Bucs – a team led by its high-powered offense. When healthy, Tampa Bay’s offense was scoring 30 points per game with regularity last year under new offensive coordinator Liam Coen and a new offensive staff outside of quarterbacks coach Thad Lewis and running backs coach Skip Peete.

That’s why Bowles is going to spend a great deal of time getting rookie play-caller Josh Grizzard, who is Coen’s replacement, up to speed as quick as he can this offseason.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles and QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“We’ll have a lot of call-it periods in practice,” Bowles said of the Bucs’ plans for the OTAs and training camp to help Grizzard get a feel for play-calling, which is what he did with Dave Canales in 2023. “We’ll have a lot of situational things. We want to put him in every position possible before he actually has to call it in a game. Before the preseason starts, he’ll see so many different situations and so many types of things and call-it periods that I’ll make them go in situations.

“It helps the defense as well, to say, ‘Oh, I should have done this or I should have done that.’ We come back to those situations, but you’ve got to help coach the coaches and bring them along. We’ve done a good job at that the past few years, bringing those guys along. Josh will be no different.”

When the Bucs offense was lighting up the scoreboard, it allowed Bowles to delve deeper into his bag of tricks in terms of exotic pressure packages and coverages. Think about wins like the 33-16 victory over the Eagles in Week 4, the 40-17 thumping of the Chargers in Week 15 or the 48-14 drubbing of the Panthers in Week 17.

“We’ve got to play not even better football at the end, but we’ve got to have killer instinct,” Bowles said. “We’ve got to try to blow people out and try to win the division instead of it going down to the last week.”

FAB 3. Todd Bowles, Yaya Diaby Want To See Bucs’ 4-Man Pass Rush Come Alive

As I transition to Pewter Report’s exclusive interview with Bucs outside linebacker Yaya Diaby, there is a natural crossover here with both Todd Bowles and Diaby wanting Tampa Bay to have more success with a four-man pass rush in 2025.

Former Bucs OLB Shaquil Barrett and Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Bowles hardly blitzed Patrick Mahomes at all in Tampa Bay’s 31-9 rout of Kansas City in Super Bowl LV in 2020. Shaq Barrett, Jason Pierre-Paul, Ndamukong Suh and Vita Vea helped produce three sacks of Mahomes and pressured him into a pair of interceptions while keeping the Chiefs out of the end zone.

The Eagles recently made Mahomes’ life incredibly difficult in their Super Bowl win over the Chiefs in February with a similarly relentless pass rush from Philly’s front four.

Bowles and Diaby both want to see the Bucs’ four-man rush thrive in 2025, and believe that will happen with the addition of veteran Haason Reddick.

“We needed a pass rusher,” Bowles said. “If we’ve got guys that can rush the passer, we let them rush the passer. Like I said last year, we need to rush better with four. I think he brings a great addition to help us rush with four, so we can cover more and do those types of things.

“We’ll still pressure some, but hopefully it won’t be as much as last year because we had to instead of how we want to. I think he brings that to the table for us.”

Being able to pressure opposing quarterbacks with the front four should help improve Tampa Bay’s pass coverage, which was ranked in the bottom five in the league last year.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles and OLB Yaya Diaby – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“It gives you extra droppers, so when you play man now, they can have some safety help at times,” Bowles said. “Whether it’s quarters-man or whether it’s two-man, you can have safety help or in-and-out double help.

“It gives you a chance to play man but also double their top receivers and take those guys away from an aggression standpoint and it gives you a chance to switch up coverages and make the quarterback hold the ball longer. If you can do that and still mix in a few pressures here or there, I think you’ll be a better defense.”

Diaby, who led the team in pressures and QB hits despite just having 4.5 sacks, would love to see the Bucs be able to get to the quarterback more frequently with just four rushers up front.

“I love it,” Diaby said. “Having my exit meeting with Coach Bowles, it was really good overall. But he was saying, ‘You’re going into your third year, for you and guys like Calijah [Kancey], we’re expecting you to get there more than you did. Watching the Super Bowl and watching how they trusted their guys to just rush, that really made me happy.

“I know we can do that. Just having the guys that we have and adding Haason, it makes it even better. All we need is just everyone healthy. I feel like that’s all that we’re missing – everybody healthy at the same time where we don’t have to keep trying to try people in different positions. It kind of hit us, but I feel like with a healthy team, yeah we’re going to be pretty scary.”

Bucs OLB Yaya Diaby and Commanders RB Austin Ekeler – Photo by: USA Today

Diaby was a bit frustrated dropping into coverage 99 times last year, as his coverage drop rate escalated from 9% as a rookie to nearly 18% in his second season in Tampa Bay. Bowles said that he needed to do more zone blitzing last year because his front four wasn’t generating enough sacks and pressures at times.

“Yeah it’s definitely a trust thing,” Diaby said. “You know his deal is, ‘If you’re not dropping, you got to give me sacks. If you don’t give me sacks, you’re going to go back to dropping.’ So that’s all it is. It’s really a trust thing, and I feel like this this year we’re going to work. We’re going to work really hard to improve all around on the front line.”

Bowles has a lot of faith in Diaby becoming more of a finisher in 2025 and dramatically increasing his sack total after being a half a step away too many times last season. Playing opposite an established pass-rushing threat like Reddick should only help Diaby’s game improve.

“I’ve seen him grow mentally, understanding how people are trying to block him,” Bowles said of Diaby. “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.”

FAB 4. Yaya Diaby LOVES Having Larry Foote As His New OLBs Coach

Last year, I was beating the drum that the Bucs were not getting the sack production they needed from their outside linebackers and that George Edwards, who coached the position, had to be replaced. Tampa Bay’s outside linebackers totaled 22 sacks in 2023, but recorded only a combined 12 sacks last year.

Bucs OLB Yaya Diaby – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles didn’t fire Edwards but removed him from coaching the unit and reassigned him to be the team’s pass game coordinator on defense. Bowles wisely moved Larry Foote from inside linebackers coach back to outside linebackers coach where he had a ton of success with Shaq Barrett, Carl Nassib and Jason Pierre-Paul in 2019 and helped the Bucs win Super Bowl LV In 2020 and establish a franchise-record 13 victories in 2021.

The energetic Foote will be able to better connect with younger, developing edge rushers like Yaya Diaby, Chris Braswell, Jose Ramirez and Markees Watts. And he’s already got a connection with new pass rusher Haason Reddick from their days together in Arizona from 2017-18.

“Well, he never stops talking, number one [laughs],” Bowles said about Foote’s ability as an outside linebackers coach. “Larry is a very knowledgeable coach. He’s very bright. When he got here, we started him outside. We knew he could coach inside because he played inside, but he had such a good feel for the outside that he really helped Shaq and JPP and we feel like he can do that again.”

During Thursday’s Pewter Report Podcast that featured Diaby as our special guest, I posted this picture of Foote back in 2019 donning a blocking pad vest and getting some hands-on work with the team’s outside linebackers and that’s exactly what excites Diaby about his new position coach.

Bucs OLBs coach Larry Foote – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“I love Coach Foote,” Diaby said. “I love the energy that he brings. I feel like the difference between he and Coach George is that he’s younger, so he – just like that picture you all had – he can actually put a pad on and actually be out there and be hands-on. I love that.”

Foote is 44 and Edwards is 58. Age aside, the best pass rush coaches I’ve covered in Tampa Bay – Rod Marinelli, Joe Cullen and Foote – are all loud, high-energy and hands-on coaches.

“I had a couple of conversations with [Foote] and telling him my goals and the goal that he has for me,” Diaby said. “He’s expecting me to take my game to the next level and when they signed Haason it was like, ‘He’s going to help you out a lot.’ I’m excited, man. I’m super excited. I’m just ready to get to work.”

Do not be surprised when Foote takes Diaby’s game to a double-digit sack level in 2025. It’s coming.

Bowles’ insertion of Foote back at outside linebackers coach will be the secret weapon on defense this season and it will unlock the potential of Tampa Bay’s four-man pass rush, featuring Diaby, Reddick and defensive tackles Vita Vea and Calijah Kancey.

FAB 5. Yaya Diaby Eager To Play On The Right Side Of The Line

As someone who loves defense and loves watching pass rushers do their thing, one of the more frustrating aspects of covering the Bucs last year was watching top edge rusher Yaya Diaby flip-flop between rushing from the left side on one series and then on the right side the next series.

That didn’t just frustrate me, it frustrated Diaby, as he explained on Thursday’s Pewter Report Podcast.

Bucs OLB Yaya Diaby – Photo by: Cliff Welch P/R

“It’s a groove thing,” Diaby said. “If you look at guys like Trey Hendrickson, T.J. Watt, Myles Garrett – all those guys rush on ‘their’ side. Myles Garrett, he loves the right side. T.J. Watt loves the left side. Trey Hendrickson, he loves the right side. All of these other packages, you’ll see them in the middle, or you’ll see them other places. But mostly they are at their spots. They’re just getting in the groove of the game.

“The more you are going against that tackle, you are giving him different looks. You can go bull [rush], bull [rush], bull [rush], and the next thing you know he’s sitting on the bull [rush] and then you can make your [counter] moves. So it’s little stuff like that. Now when you go to the left side [to play versus the right tackle], you’re like, ‘Dang, I was doing so good against [the left tackle]. It’s like, dang, I want to go back over there.’ It’s little stuff like that.”

Thankfully for Diaby, the Bucs imported a double-digit sacker in Haason Reddick, who loves rushing from the left side against right tackles.

“He loves the left side and I love the right side – so we’ll be just fine,” Diaby said. “That’s another thing – what I was doing the whole month of March, just watching myself and just watching my abilities [on tape]. And how I rushed on the right and how I rushed on the left. I had a big dip [in production] rushing from the left side that I really want to improve on this offseason.

Bucs OLB Yaya Diaby and Commanders QB Jayden Daniels – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“But rushing from the right side is just natural. My hand placement, how I get off and everything. It just feels right, and it just happens to be against the best O-lineman, and I love that challenge.”

He loves the fact that Larry Foote, his new position coach, asked Diaby where he wanted to play this upcoming season.

“I’m excited,” Diaby said. “The first thing Coach Foote asked me was, ‘What side do you want to be on?’ I said, ‘I’m on the right side.’ It just happened that they signed Haason and he loves being on the left side. So it worked out.”

Diaby feels like if he stays on one side – the right side – he can establish that as his home base and really make strides towards improving as a sack artist and converting pressures into QB captures in 2025.

That’s exactly what Foote and head coach Todd Bowles are looking for from Diaby. And what Diaby expects from himself this season.

Watch Pewter Report’s Latest Bucs Mock Draft Show Podcast

The Bucs Mock Draft 4.0 Podcast – presented by Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux – was broadcast live on Thursday, April 3rd on our PewterReportTV YouTube channel as well as live-streamed on our X and Facebook channels – @PewterReport. Pewter Report’s draft experts Scott Reynolds and Josh Queipo discussed all of their draft picks for the Bucs and answered questions from fans. Be sure to check out this podcast to get ready for the 2025 NFL Draft.