YaYa Diaby Named Among Most Underrated Players in NFC

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - YaYa Diaby has only been in the NFL for one season, but he's already well on his way to having a potentially impactful career. The former Louisville outside linebacker and current Tampa Bay Buccaneer put together a great rookie campaign in 2023, and he's starting to earn respect at the national level.

Earlier this week, Sports Illustrated's Connor Orr named every NFL team's most underrated player, split up between the AFC and the NFC. When going through the teams in the NFC, Orr named Diaby as the Bucs' most underrated player.

"There was a great play during Diaby’s rookie season in which he was setting the edge and bench-pressed Lions all-world offensive tackle Penei Sewell on a run play that was churning right into his lap, and then he made the tackle," Orr wrote. "Diaby made a significant number of violent, eye-popping tackles last year and is physical enough to plow through multiple blockers.

"Another huge tackle for loss he made against the Tennessee Titans showed that Diaby could read tendencies enough to know that Derrick Henry was running away from him, so he shoved his outside shoulder ahead of his blocker and popped upfield for an easy (not really easy against Henry) tackle," Orr continued.

The 6-foot-4, 270-pound edge rusher played in all 17 of Tampa Bay's games last season, while starting the final seven. In that time, he collected 38 tackles (25 solo), 12 for loss, 7.5 sacks, eight QB hits, a forced fumble and two fumble recoveries. Diaby finished fifth in the Defensive Rookie of the Year voting.

Diaby was drafted in the third round of the 2023 NFL Draft following an extremely impactful senior season at Louisville. He finished with 14.0 tackles for loss and 9.0 sacks, with his sack total ranking second in the ACC, while also tallying 37 tackles, four QB hurries and two recovered fumbles en route to Third-Team All-ACC honors.

(Photo of YaYa Diaby: Kelley L Cox - USA TODAY Sports)

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