Vita Vea has become a top run-stopping nose tackle quickly in his two year NFL career, and was a big reason why the Bucs were the best in the league against the run least season, allowing an NFL-best 73.9 yards per game. In order to get into the conversation as one of the best overall defensive linemen in the league, Vea will have to improve his pass rushing as he enters his third year in Tampa Bay.

Although the Bucs’ first-round pick in 2018 is asked to take on double teams along with Ndamukong Suh in order to open up pass rushing opportunities for Shaq Barrett and company, Vea recorded 2.5 sacks last season and has 5.5 overall in his career. While the sack production slightly decreased last year, Vea did triple his quarterback hits, going from four to 12 in 2019.

Bucs NT Vita Vea – Photo by: Getty Images

Vea is getting closer to the quarterback, but not close enough, according to Bucs Hall of Fame defensive tackle Warren Sapp, who has been a critic of the Washington product since he was drafted by Tampa Bay. And Barrett’s career year of 19.5 sacks will undoubtedly shift to the attention to him, which could open up more pass rushing opportunities for Vea.

It’s early in camp, but some teammates have already seen a much better version of Vea in this aspect of his game. This includes left guard Ali Marpet, who lines up against him every day in practice.

“I’ve seen tremendous growth,” Marpet said. “Especially in pass rush when considering where he was at when he first got here to now. He is a weapon. I mean he is really good, kudos to him because he’s come a long way in his pass rush and I think he’s gonna really give a lot of offensive linemen some issues in the pass game. Then obviously we know what he can do in the run the game. He’s come very far”

There has been a bigger focus on Vea’s pass-rushing skills in this year’s training camp and where he can best improve. The massive nose tackle has spent more time scouting his upcoming opponents, which should help his production.

“I think the first step starts in the film room,” Vea said. “I’m looking and watching film and seeing what’s available and what moves I can do and learning from other people and then watching film on the opponents and seeing how they pass protect. Also taking coaching from the coaches and working on what they told me to work on.”

Vea has started training camp with a club on his right hand after he injured it in the offseason while training. In the meantime, he’s had to make due with only having the use of one hand, and the club finally came off for Wednesday’s morning practice.

“My hand feels good right now,” Vea said. “As far as the club, it’s been an adjustment but it should be off soon so that should be going back to normal pretty soon. It’s just been an adjustment playing with the club obviously because you don’t have both hands to play with. I hurt it during training.”

Bucs DT Vita Vea – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Hand placement is one of the areas that his defensive coordinator Todd Bowles would like to see Vea get better at. We know how athletic he is with his massive size, so adding in some more technique once he has both hands free could put him on the next level.

“I think he just has to use his hands more,” Bowles said. “You know he’s big and powerful, but he’s also fast and athletic as well. You just gotta get his hand placement down and use his hands more and not settle for the first time when he puts his hands on them and then try to bull them after that. He’s just gotta swipe and rip and do all those things that coach [Kacy] Rodgers is asking him to do. If he does that more he’ll be a little more effective.”