Welcome back to our latest installment of “Grinding the Tape.” Now that we have covered the Bucs’ draft picks and key offseason free agent additions, let’s turn our attention to key players looking to make a jump in play in year two or three.

The first player we will look at in this part of the series will be Bucs second-year OLB Joe Tryon-Shoyinka. He was the Bucs’ first round selection in 2021, taken with the 32nd overall pick. Tryon-Shoyinka was a redshirt junior who had opted out of the 2020 season due to Covid-19 concerns. Before we get into JTS’s 2021 tape here is a great breakdown of his game coming out of college.

Now that Jon Ledyard has so wonderfully shown the baseline of Tryon-Shoyinka’s game, let’s look at where he took it during his rookie season. For this evaluation I watched Tampa Bay’s 2021 games against Dallas in Week 1, Atlanta in Week 2, Miami in Week 5, and New Orleans in both Weeks 8 and 15. In addition, I looked at all four of his sacks for the season. Two came against New England in Week 4, one against Washington in Week 10, and the final one coming in Week 15 against New Orleans.

Cleaning Up The Wasted Movement

One of the biggest opportunities highlighted with Tryon-Shoyinka’s game coming out of Washington was his wasted movement. Namely he had a false step that slowed his ability to get to the quarterback. From the film I watched it would seem that this was an area the Bucs worked on with JTS and helped him clean up. Take a look at this clip. Watch as he is able to push off in the direction of the pocket without the aforementioned extra step.

From a two-point stance Tryon-Shoyinka gets low to push off vertically towards the left tackle with little wasted movement. This helps him leverage his burst and athleticism. You’ll see Falcons left tackle Jake Matthews scrambling to mirror JTS for an outside speed rush. Tryon-Shoyinka then lands a strong punch that knocks Matthews off balance before finishing with a swim move back to the inside.

Speaking Of The Swim Move

That swim move was consistent throughout Tryon-Shoyinka’s tape. It was clear it was the move he was most comfortable with, especially as his inside counter. Here are a few plays where he flashes it.

Here against Dallas he sets it up against the tight end. JTS flashes his explosiveness to the outside before using a big arm-over swim to grab the inside lane. watch at the end of his move his body positioning and balance.  We will get to more of that later.

Here is a less exaggerated version of the swim move. It’s also much more effective. You can see JTS is much more vertically oriented when he executes it. This allows him to keep his balance better and stay on course to the quarterback.

I believe this last one really displays Tryon-Shoyinka’s comfort level with the move. He is obviously thinking about using even before the play starts. That’s evident in that he starts to execute a swim initially as he approaches Matthews. But as he sees the slide protection develop and that the swim move is going to leave him pancaked by the guard, he holsters it. But he goes right back to it to get inside on the guard. The move is effective for him, but if he is going to elevate his game and become a consistent pass rush weapon, Tryon-Shoyinka is going to need to build a bigger arsenal than just this one move.

Stunts

One way the Bucs were able to successfully utilize Tryon-Shoyinka last year was through the use of stunts. He has a great blend of athletic traits that require offensive linemen to plan to stop him. So, when the Bucs can get him moving quickly into another lineman’s area, he can often leverage his physical gifts to positive results.

Watch as Tryon-Shoyinka loops around Ndamukong Suh. It allows him to easily attack the guard’s inside shoulder with speed and power. This gives him the ability to crash the pocket with ease.

Here JTS loops across four gaps, moving from where he is lined up in a 4i on the left side of the defensive alignment to attacking from the right edge. The speed and agility he displays make him a unique piece that Bucs head coach Todd Bowles can deploy in a variety of ways.

Where Can He Improve As A Pass Rusher?

The base traits are all there for Tryon-Shoyinka. He has the physical traits to win with length, power, and speed. The elimination of his false step from college to his rookie year shows his willingness to be coached. Last year he registered a PFF pass rush grade of 58.8, which is a bit below average. This can easily improve in year two with a couple of adjustments/improvements.

So, what will he need to improve upon in year two to go from being a 10% pressure guy to a 14% pressure guy for the Bucs? There were a few things I saw that I think he layer into his game this year.

Using His Hands More and Playing With Power

Tryon-Shoyinka leaned heavily on his speed and swim move last year. This may have been a reaction to playing in multiple different roles where he was not able to really hone-in on his craft as an edge rusher and build upon his base talents. But it is something he will need to focus on in order to ascend this year. Take a look at this rep against Atlanta.

It’s a pretty good rep, right? JTS gets pressure and is part of the reason Matt Ryan is forced out of the pocket. But look closely. Tryon-Shoyinka wins off the line with his burst and speed. He decides initially try a double-swipe against right tackle Kaleb McGary’s punch, but never quite finishes the move. The problem is his arc gets too big and he ends up behind Ryan. McGary wins because he is able to just push JTS up the arc. Watch JTS’s hips.  They never turn towards the pocket.

Tryon-Shoyinka could have implemented a power move that could have allowed him to turn the corner and get to Matt Ryan. A club-rip where he rips the tackle’s outside arm in the air, flipped his hips, and then turned the corner essentially under the tackle’s armpit would have allowed him to impact the play to a greater degree.

You can see it again on this rep versus Dallas.

This time JTS is coming off the right edge against Dallas’ left tackle. Consistent with the speed off the line and getting up-field relatively unimpeded. But again, he ends up getting run out of the play past the top of the arc. Watch his pad level and overall leverage. He’s extremely upright. If he added an element of bend, combined with the solid punch he got to the tackles chest he could have gone with a bull-and-pull. This would be where he leverages the arm in the chest and pulls the tackle wide while JTS counters to the inside giving him an easy lane to Prescott.

Tryon-Shoyinka has 34-inch arms, which ranks him in the 75th percentile for edge rushers. I’d like to see him use them more. If he can start incorporating that into his pass rush arsenal more you should be able to expect more things like this:

JTS uses his left arm to prevent the tackle from using his hands. He then follows his arm through the arc to the quarterback. If he starts adding this consistently to his repertoire watch out.

Keeping Balance

There is a fine line between playing fast and playing out of control. Bucs fans see this a lot in linebacker Devin White. When a pass rusher plays out of control it often shows up in a lack of balance. I saw that quite a bit in Tryon-Shoyinka’s game last year.

Throughout 90% of this play JTS is just trying not to fall down. It starts when he tries to blow past tight end Adam Trautman, only to have Trautman get a good grip and push on him. The push combined with Tryon-Shoyinka’s burst off the line causes him to fall into the backfield. As he tries to get his balance, he ends up running into tight end Juwan Johnson. This impedes Tryon-Shoyinka’s ability to track the quarterback and ultimately leaves him out of the play.

Run Defense

There is still work to be done for JTS to be a plus run defender. One of the biggest areas of opportunity is his ability to set the edge and prevent runners from getting outside into wide-open space. He still isn’t consistent with it and it can lead to plays like this.

By committing inside and turning his hips fully he opens up a kick-out opportunity for the running back that turned a potential loss into a 4-yard gain.

But when JTS does set the edge, he can penetrate and be very disruptive.

He beats the initial block attempt by Hunter Hurst. JTS then splits McGary and tight end Kyle Pitts, who both try to correct for the missed block. By this time, he is in the backfield disrupting the original path of the run and re-routing it back to the inside.

Remember that swim move from before? He uses it in run defense as well. Watch as he employs it against New Orleans for a great tackle for loss.

He uses the swim to penetrate the line and try and set the edge. Alvin Kamara decides not to cut back and tries to beat him to the edge, but Tryon-Shoyinka is able to keep up with him and wrap up for the tackle.

And one more against New Orleans which shows the upside of what he is capable of.

Here he keeps holds the edge against the pulling tight end without giving up any ground. As soon as the running back commits to the inside, JTS moves in for the tackle, not by crossing back inside the tight end trying to block him. Rather, he wraps up while keeping his outside leverage. Really fun play.

Pass Defense

Regardless of whether they are good at it or not, Todd Bowles asks his pass rushers to drop into coverage. Therefore, it is fair to look at Tryon-Shoyinka’s tape in that area last year and evaluate. The results on the tape were rough. Based on his reps in 2021 I think it is safe to say Tryon-Shoyinka has not been asked to drop into coverage much in his career. Take a look.

In this first clip, JTS appears to be in a zone coverage where he is responsible for the flat. The motioning tight end runs a flat route that puts him right in Tryon-Shoyinka’s zone. You can see the hesitation in JTS’s movements pre-snap and just before he leaves the screen. By the time he re-appears you can see the tight end Mike Gesicki got outside leverage for an easy catch.

Additionally, he was able to even his vertical space with JTS so once the catch was made, he was able to turn up-field and gain more yardage. I don’t mind the catch. He’s a pass rusher trying to cover a premier pass-catcher. But in his development, I hope he can recognize small subtle things like the space between zone assignments and keeping players in front of him in order to limit plays.

Here’s another example of him being lost. He drops to the short underneath zone. But JTS doesn’t have a traditional backpedal. He is running with his hips flipped to the middle of the field.

As he sees quarterback Trevor Semian start to release the ball to a receiver behind him, JTS tries to flip back to outside. The problem? The receiver is running a slant/shallow cross that’s leading him back to the middle of the field. You know, the one that JTS just closed himself off to. As Tryon-Shoyinka feverishly tries to turn back to the middle all he can do is lunge at the receiver as he turns up field. If Bowles is going to continue to drop him into coverage on 10% of his snaps, I hope we can see some improvement in rout recognition, backpedals and general zone awareness.

There you have it. Overall, JTS had a solid, if unspectacular rookie campaign. He ended up with more reps than I think the Bucs had envisioned for him due to injuries to Jason Pierre-Paul.

This bodes well for the second-year edge rusher, as it gave him more opportunities to develop. That development needs to continue here in year two for him to take the next step from a low-end No. 2 edge-rusher, to the elite quarterback terrorizer the Bucs hope he can become.

Oh yeah … I didn’t show any sacks in this at all. That’s kind of funny as we are evaluating a pass rusher. Well, I saved them for last. Here are all four of JTS’s sacks from last year. Two hustle clean-ups against Washington and New Orleans against quarterbacks getting outside the pocket, followed by the two against New England where you can see him win with a swim and on a stunt. Enjoy!