Buccaneers Urged to Avoid ‘Underachieving’ Edge Rusher in First Round

For all the good Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht has done in putting together his team’s roster, when it comes to finding an edge rusher in the NFL draft or free agency, he’s mostly missed the mark.

In the last 4 years, the Buccaneers have taken an edge rusher with their first pick in the draft 2 times. Both players made little to no impact on the defense as a whole.

Tampa Bay didn’t lift a finger to try and keep 2021 first round pick (No. 32 overall) Joe Tryon-Shoyinka, who signed a 1-year, $4.75 million free agent contract with the Cleveland Browns.

Logan Hall, the Buccaneers’ first pick (No. 33 overall) in 2022, only has 8.5 sacks through his first 3 seasons and could be following Tryon-Shoyinka out the door in 2026.

Edge rusher also happens to be the position where Tampa Bay needs the most help in 2025, and The 33rd Team’s James Foster has them taking Texas A&M edge rusher Shemar Stewart in the first round (No. 19 overall) of his latest mock draft.

Stewart is another disastrous pick Tampa Bay needs to avoid, and aside from his physical traits at 6-foot-5 and 267 pounds, there’s little to indicate an underachieving edge rusher in college can be an elite player in the NFL.

Stewart had just 4.5 sacks over 3 seasons at Texas A&M — exactly 1.5 sacks each season. So, with Stewart, the Buccaneers would be drafting a player to do a very specific thing he hasn’t shown he’s very good at.

“Tampa Bay takes a gamble on Shemar Stewart, who is arguably the most athletic edge prospect since Myles Garrett,” Foster wrote. “Stewart is powerful, explosive, and flexible but isn’t a skilled or instinctive pass rusher yet … when he did get 1-on-1 opportunities to rush the passer, he showed that he’s a long way from being able to compete with NFL tackles.”

Deep Dive Into NFL’s Sacks Leaders Not Good For Stewart

Looking back at the last decade of NFL sacks leaders shows a pattern that doesn’t favor Stewart becoming a productive NFL edge rusher.

All 10 years featured a player who had double-digit career sacks in college. Seven of the 10 years featured a player who had at least one single season with double-digit sacks in college.

Comparing that to Stewart, his career total for sacks matched the worst single-season high for any of the players who led the NFL in sacks over the last decade. Chandler Jones led the NFL with 17.0 sacks in 2017 and had a career-high 4.5 of his 10.0 career sacks during his final season at Syracuse in 2011.

Eight out of the Top 10 NFL sacks leaders in 2024 had at least 10.0 career sacks in college, with 8 of them having at least one college season with 8.0 sacks.

While Stewart’s physical traits are intoxicating — he also ran the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds and has a 40-inch vertical leap — the Buccaneers need to not to make this move. It’s just too risky.

“I wasn’t a sack-chasing warrior (in college),” Stewart told ESPN’s Jeff Legwold. “I just wanted to become the best player for my team. And sometimes the stats don’t show that. Sometimes, I have to play dead to rights, and sometimes I just couldn’t finish or just couldn’t get there in time.”