DT Vita Vea – 6-4, 347 – 25 years old – 3rd season

It was no surprise when the Bucs traded back five spots from No. 7 to No. 12 overall in exchange for two second-round picks from the Buffalo Bills. But when the team decided to draft Vita Vea instead of the local and more highly coveted Derwin James, a safety from Florida State, the reaction was significant.

James missed most of last season, but wasted little time becoming a star as a rookie in 2018. Vea has been a steady and consistent player for the Bucs through two seasons, albeit lacking the flash and impact James’ has had in Los Angeles.

Billed as an athletic freak because of his 5.10 time in the 40-yard dash at 347 pounds, Vea is more fast for his size than having great functional athleticism for his position. As an interior pass rusher, burst, bend/flexibility and change-of-direction are vital traits, and Vea isn’t more than average in any of those areas. He struggles to re-direct and cross the face of blockers, or dip around their outside edge to apply pressure.

Vea tries to cross Falcons’ guard James Carpenter’s face to win around his outside edge, but he doesn’t have the burst to really threaten his opponent, and then he trips up and falls trying to corner.

Outside of Vea’s athletic concerns as a rusher, he also tends to play too high and stays stuck on blocks because of his lack of secondary moves. There’s no counter when his first move doesn’t hit, as you can see on the failed bull rush below.

Still, Vea is a solid pass rusher due to two things: unreal power and shockingly sudden and deadly hands. It is not easy to dominate with raw power in the NFL because of the parity of raw strength across the league, but Vea still takes it to another level. If he catches a center in the chest, they’ll go for a ride, period.

That’s Alex Mack he’s man-handling to the quarterback, one of the best centers in the NFL. Vea’s power is devastating, but he also has some great pass rush moves that give him quick wins if he’s left one-on-one. His cross-chop, snatch and swim moves are wonderfully executed, sometimes all together on one play.

Vea’s cross-chop literally doubles Carpenter over at the waist, then Vea club-swims him to finish the rep and drop Matt Ryan. That’s about as good as it gets. When Vea lands his hands, he’s so powerful that even NFL offensive linemen with no strength concerns look silly against him at times.

Texans’ center Nick Martin tries to land an independent strike on Vea, but the nose tackle cross chops his right arm and then bulldozes through what’s left of the block on his way to disrupting the pocket.

This is Vea in a nutshell. His area of impact isn’t as big as the premier defensive tackles in the NFL like Aaron Donald, Cam Heyward, Chris Jones, Fletcher Cox or Grady Jarrett. But in a phone booth, he can be a monster to handle one-on-one. When Vea gets his hands on the opponent first, things rarely go well for that individual.

That’s two of the game’s best centers in Frank Ragnow and Alex Mack getting totally discarded by Vea at the point of attack. Vea doesn’t have the range or agility to finish or chase down either play, but the ability to be disruptive and re-route backs who see him coming and have to keep moving is still a valuable trait. Vea may never lead the league in tackles for loss, but he’s a high-quality run defender in his own gap.

The one time Vea gets into trouble in the run game is due to his pad level. Because he is so strong and rarely got overpowered in college (and even in the NFL honestly), he was never forced to play with the knee bend and perfect technique that other defensive tackles were forced to learn. As a result, once in a while, Vea will get buckled up and go down, especially when he has to move laterally in a hurry.

Vea is already a good player, and it’s unlikely he’ll be much worse or much better moving forward. I don’t see the upside to be a difference-maker behind the line of scrimmage, or the athleticism to push for the top tier of defensive tackles in the league. But Vea should always be in the next group, as his physical traits and developed hand usage indicate just how high his floor is.

Maybe we’ll look back in another year or two and still believe the Bucs should have taken James, but I have no concerns about Vea being a bust in the NFL. It didn’t take him long to acclimate to the league, and he’s holding up one of the Bucs’ thinnest position groups on his very large shoulders. Tampa Bay will undoubtedly rely heavily on Vea to carry the load up front, as he may be their best interior run stuffer and pass rusher. He’s never played more than 66 percent of the team’s snaps in a season, so how he handles a bigger workload remains to be seen.