Akheem Mesidor And The Bucs
March 3rd, 2026
Joe knows a sect of Bucs fans wants the team to draft the best available edge rusher and hope for the best.
It’s an understandable thought process. Come the draft in late April, the Bucs will be desperate for an edge rusher if they don’t sign one in free agency.
Current Bucs edge rusher YaYa Diaby is good but not close to great. At 29, Anthony Nelson is career backup. Chris Braswell is invisible and second-year edge rusher David Walker has never played in a preseason or regular season game.
That collective reality represents a problem for a 2026 Bucs team with a goal of postseason glory.
Among the various draft mavens, Joe is a fan of longtime NFL.com film guru Lance Zierlein. The son of a renowned former NFL offensive coach, Zierlein is all about the film and he breaks down hundreds of prospects each year for the NFL in great detail.
In his post-Combine mock draft yesterday, Zierlein placed University of Miami edge rusher Akheem Mesidor in the Bucs’ lap at No. 15 overall.
No surprise, Zierlein went to the tape and says Mesidor can hit the ground running.