The New York Giants' Dexter Lawrence is likely headed for All-Pro status in 2024, as he leads all NFL interior defensive linemen with 9.0 sacks despite being double-teamed on nearly two-thirds of his pass rush snaps. As the Tampa Bay Buccaneers prepared to take on the Giants, it's fair to say that Lawrence was a top concern. Maybe the top concern for the Buccaneers.
Thanks in large part to some very good work by young offensive linemen Cody Mauch and Graham Barton, the Buccaneers were able to escape the Meadowlands without taking too much damage from Lawrence, who finished Sunday's game with four tackle assists and one quarterback hit. The Buccaneers won, 30-7, and Baker Mayfield was given ample time to complete 24 of his 30 passes for 294 yards.
Instead, it was the Tampa Bay pass rush that made a big impact, sacking quarterback Tommy DeVito four times and hitting him nine times. And not one but two Buccaneer interior linemen had a sack, with Calijah Kancey ending the Giants' first drive of the game with a third-down capture of DeVito and Vita Vea breaking through to get his midway through the second quarter.
Kancey also had a fumble recovery that led to a Bucs touchdown drive in the third quarter plus a second quarterback hit as he continued his recent hot streak. Kancey has tallied 4.0 sacks in the Bucs' last three games. Head Coach Todd Bowles pinned that surge to one specific part of the second-year defender's game.
"It's always fundamentals for me down there with his technique," said Bowles. "We know he's fast, we know he's strong but when he uses his hands he's unstoppable. When he doesn't use his hands, he gets stuck a little bit. He's using his hands quite a bit right now getting in the backfield and he's really just unlocking his potential. We look for more things to happen for him every week."
Kancey increased his sack total on the season to 5.0, which remains second on the team to Vea's 6.0. That's particularly impressive given that Kancey missed the first five games of the season due to a calf injury. He has since logged 242 defensive snaps and is the only player in the NFL with five or more sacks who has played fewer than 250 snaps. He had a sack in his first game back during a 51-27 win in New Orleans.
"I did so much as far as rehab and getting back [into] game shape and wanting to… I was very desperate to play football and ready to get back out there. I feel like I had done everything to get back to who I was and just… I wouldn't even say it was knocking off the rust, but it was more so just getting back to what I was doing and playing at that elite level."
The Buccaneers and the Rams are the only two teams in the NFL to have two interior linemen record at least 5.0 sacks so far this season. When Tampa Bay drafted Kancey 19th overall in 2023 they were going against their type at the position. Since Bowles' arrival as the defensive coordinator in 2019, the Bucs had favored big interior linemen, such as Vea, Ndamukong Suh and Logan Hall. They thought the idea of pairing the undersized Kancey and his explosive quick step next to the immensely powerful Vea would make things rough on opposing linemen, and the last month has looked like proof of concept. Vea has three sacks and five quarterback hits over the last three contests.
2025 Pro Bowl Voting Is Open!
Vote for your favorite Buccaneers to send them to the 2025 Pro Bowl in Orlando, Florida on Sunday, February 2nd.
Vea last went to the Pro Bowl in 2021 when he finished with 4.0 sacks. He's had more than that every season since and needs just one more to set a new single-season standard for himself. Vea may be having his best season yet after using the offseason to resculpt his body a little bit, but he was already a major force in the Bucs' defense before that.
"I mean, he has a good season every year for me," said Bowles. "It's not about the Pro Bowl, it's about helping us win and the accolades will come as they come. Whoever has the best record – it usually ends up like that and it kind of goes according to that, but I think he had a Pro Bowl year the last couple seasons for us. In my opinion, he's playing good football, he's got the sacks to show it – that's not the whole story that it tells because he's destroying the middle and he's keeping us in ballgames."
As a team, the Buccaneers have the second-highest sack total in the league since Week Four. Much of that pressure is coming straight up the middle, and that's a commodity that can be hard to find in the NFL. The difference in the two team's pass rush on Sunday at MetLife Stadium was a huge factor in the final outcome. The Bucs hope to see more of that down the stretch.
