Yaya Diaby and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers still have unfinished business in the playoffs, but the Buccaneers closed out their regular season with a division title-clinching win over New Orleans and Diaby capped his own NFL campaign with one of his best performances so far.
On Wednesday, the NFL announced that Diaby had been named the NFC Defensive Player of the Week for Week 18. The Buccaneers' second-year outside linebacker took up residence in the Saints' backfield, recording 1.0 sack, four quarterback hits and four tackles for loss. Diaby's efforts helped Tampa Bay rally from a 10-point halftime deficit to an eventual 27-19 victory, with the Saints limited to just three points after halftime.
Diaby's POTW awards is the fifth won by the Buccaneers this season but the first on defense. It's also the fourth such honor won by a Tampa Bay player in the last six weeks of the season, as the Buccaneers won six of their last seven games to move past Atlanta into their fourth straight NFC South crown. Quarterback Baker Mayfield won the Offensive Player of the Week award in Weeks 15 and 17 and running back Bucky Irving took the same honor home in Week 13. Previously, running back Sean Tucker had been named the NFC's OPOTW in Week Six.
After emerging as an impact player in his rookie season with 7.5 sacks, Diaby, a former third-round draft pick out of Louisville, finished his second season with 4.5 sacks but was arguably a much better pass-rusher in 2024. He led the Buccaneers with 20 quarterback hits and saw his pressure rate jump from 9.1% last year to 13.3% this year. He also had 56 quarterback pressures, compared to 27 in his rookie campaign.
Diaby is the first Buccaneer to win the NFC Defensive Player of the Week award since safety Antoine Winfield Jr. in Week 13 of last season. He is the team's first outside linebacker to receive that accolade since Shaquil Barrett in Week Three of the 2020 campaign.
With the Buccaneers trailing 19-13 in the third quarter of Sunday's game, rookie punter Jack Browning mishandled a snap and was only able to get off a rushed 14-yard punt to Tampa Bay's 47. The Bucs' defense minimized the damage by forcing a punt, and a key part of that stop was Diaby's second-down sack of Spencer Rattler. Diaby also had a third-down hit on Rattler midway through the fourth quarter that forced an incompletion and a punt with the Bucs clinging to a one-point lead.
Diaby's four quarterback hits and four tackles for loss were the most by any NFC defender in Week 18. He became just the fourth player in the NFL this season to have four QB hits and four tackles for loss in the same game, joining Detroit's Aidan Hutchinson (Week 2), Cincinnati's Trey Hendrickson (Week 9 – Player of the Week) and San Francisco's Nick Bosa (Week 17).
