Chris Braswell’s exit says as much about Tampa Bay’s pass rush makeover as it does about Braswell himself.
The Buccaneers waived the second-round pick as part of their final cuts, ending his time in Tampa Bay after two seasons. Braswell played in all 34 games during that span, but he never became the edge threat the team expected when it drafted him out of Alabama. His Buccaneers résumé closes with 48 tackles, 2.5 sacks and five tackles for loss.
What makes the move stand out is how much the Bucs’ outside linebacker room has changed around him. Tampa Bay kept five edge defenders on its initial 53-man roster: Yaya Diaby, Rueben Bain Jr., Al-Quadin Muhammad, Anthony Nelson and David Walker.
Diaby was the team’s sack leader last season with seven and ranked ninth in the NFL in pressures. Bain, the 15th overall pick in April, brings the kind of top-end talent the Bucs have been missing.
Muhammad comes in after an 11-sack season with Detroit. Walker, back after missing his rookie year with a torn ACL, flashed all summer as one of Tampa Bay’s most disruptive pass rushers.
Nelson has long been a steady rotational piece and special teams contributor, and he added 2.5 sacks in the preseason.
That left Braswell fighting for what would have been a sixth spot, and he never really made the case. His stalled development became even more obvious once Walker started popping and Tampa Bay surrounded the position with real talent.
It’s a sharp contrast from a year ago, when the Bucs finished with just 37 sacks and blitzed on 35 percent of their pass-rush snaps, the third-highest rate in the league. This offseason, they set out to build a front that could generate pressure without Todd Bowles having to send extra rushers so often. Now they’ll open the season with a deeper rotation and a pass rush that looks very different from the one they had at the end of last year.
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