{"id":870259,"date":"2026-04-19T22:45:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T22:45:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/870259\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T22:45:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T22:45:28","slug":"late-round-draft-gem-could-be-the-missing-piece-for-buccaneers-pass-rush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/870259\/","title":{"rendered":"Late-round draft gem could be the missing piece for Buccaneers\u2019 pass rush"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5h\">The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have long been searching for a solution to their pass rush problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5k\">They haven\u2019t had a player record double-digit sacks since Shaq Barrett did it in 2021. The inability to get pressure on opposing quarterbacks has been the downfall of the Buccaneers&#8217; defense in recent seasons.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5n\">The Bucs are expected to approach the <a href=\"https:\/\/thepewterplank.com\/buccaneers-7-round-mock-draft-jason-licht-makes-surprise-pick-nobody-saw-coming\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">2026 NFL Draft<\/a> with an emphasis on upgrading their two biggest weaknesses: the pass rush and the inside linebacker spot.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5q\">There is a sleeper expected to be available on Day 3 that could provide exactly what the Buccaneers are looking for.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Nadame Tucker could be the answer to the Buccaneers\u2019 pass rush problem\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5w\">Nadame Tucker out of Western Michigan is one of the most intriguing prospects of the <a href=\"https:\/\/thepewterplank.com\/tampa-bay-buccaneers-news\/draft\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">2026 NFL Draft.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5z\">The biggest concern negatively impacting his draft stock is that he&#8217;ll already be 26 years old when his rookie year begins, and he wasn\u2019t able to carve out a starting role until his final college season. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/interactive\/the-beast-2026\/player\/nadame-tucker-western-michigan-edge-rusher\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Dane Brugler in his draft guide<\/a>, accountability concerns kept Tucker off the field at Houston before he transferred to Western Michigan in 2025.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"62\">But when he finally got on the field, Tucker was one of the most disruptive pass rushers in college football.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"65\">Over 13 starts, he led the MAC in both tackles for loss (22) and sacks (14.5) while adding 55 tackles and four forced fumbles. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/interactive\/the-beast-2026\/player\/nadame-tucker-western-michigan-edge-rusher\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">According to Brugler<\/a>, he led the FBS in sacks per game (1.12), tackles for loss per game (1.62) and pass rush win percentage (28.4 percent).<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"68\">His elite 90.6 overall <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pff.com\/ncaa\/players\/nadame-tucker\/156169\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">PFF<\/a> grade ranked 11th out of 852 qualifying players at the position. His 92.7 pass rush grade ranked 4th in the nation.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6b\">The Bucs are likely going to draft an edge rusher far earlier than Tucker\u2019s projection as a late Day 3 pick, but if they want to double dip to bolster the pass rush, Tucker would be the perfect flier.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6e\">They hosted him for a 30 visit, so the Bucs have shown interest. If they\u2019re able to get him a good value on Day 3, they should sprint to the podium and take a low-risk, high-reward gamble that could pay dividends for their pass rush.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow thepewterplank.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=thepewterplank.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have long been searching for a solution to their pass rush problem.\u00a0 They haven\u2019t&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":870260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[211,7,6,704,250,2597,2596],"class_list":{"0":"post-870259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-buccaneers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-tampa-bay","12":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","13":"tag-tampabay","14":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116433803201276580","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/870260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}