Bamba had 4 pass defenses in the first 30 minutes, all coming in the second quarter and one breaking up a potential TD pass in the end zone.
As AG said, we’ve got make sure that we mention the fact that the Buccaneers didn’t play their first two QBs, Baker Mayfield and Jake Browning, and went with first-year QB Connor Bazelak for the first half. Also, Bamba’s game is no guarantee of success to come in the two remaining summer games or the regular season, for which he would have to make the active roster. But his Friday stat line produced several outstanding distinctions.
Personal — Bamba’s 4 pass defenses came in a little more than eight minutes of that second quarter. By comparison, as a BYU redshirt senior, he had 4 PDS for the entire 14-game season, or some 840 minutes. For his four-season career with the Cougars, he had 9 PDs in 36 games.
League Preseason — Bamba is the only NFL player in the last three preseasons and one of just 7 NFL players since 2017 to record at least 4 PDs in a game. This is only the 10th preseason that TruMedia.com has been tracking preseason statistics.
Jets Preseason — Pass defense numbers are available even farther back, with the league and the Elias Sports Bureau tracking them since 2000. So we can further say that Bamba is the first Jet to be credited with 4-plus PDs in a preseason game since 2005. That summer, Atari Bigby, the undrafted FA rookie safety from Central Florida, racked up a video-game-like 6 PDs in the preseason finale at Philadelphia. Bigby didn’t stick with the Jets but went on to play from 2005-10 for Green Bay and participated in the Packers’ Super Bowl LXV win over the Steelers.