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The Buccaneers' Answer at Edge Rusher Could Be a Texas Star Built for Todd Bowles' Scheme
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- The Buccaneers' Answer at Edge Rusher Could Be a Texas Star Built for Todd Bowles' Scheme
Tampa Bay finally got after the quarterback in Week 6, sacking Aaron Rodgers five times, and still lost in overtime to the Steelers . Before that game, the Buccaneers had six sacks through five weeks, and they sit at 1-5 with an edge group that still hasn't settled.
Our NFL draft analyst Luke Easterling has a fix in his updated 2027 first-round mock draft .
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With the No. 5 pick, the Bucs would take Texas edge rusher Colin Simmons, whose versatility to line up all over the front seven would give Todd Bowles another weapon for a scheme built on creative blitz packages.
Rueben Bain Jr. needs a partner on the edge
Rueben Bain Jr. was supposed to change the pass rush right away. The No. 15 overall pick sprained his shoulder in a joint practice in August, though, then hurt his groin in Week 2. He's since missed two games.
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Bain picked up his first NFL sack against Pittsburgh , but he has five pressures on 76 pass-rush snaps. Yaya Diaby, who led the team with seven sacks last season, has none in 2026 and is in the final year of his rookie deal. David Walker leads the team with four sacks and has earned an every-down role .
Bowles described in September how his front is supposed to work.
"It's not just him out on the edge trying to get a sack right there. It's him and Bain talking to each other, as well as him and Kancey and Vita [Vea], as far as setting each other up," Bowles said of Diaby .
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Simmons is the kind of rusher that plan needs.
The Dallas native has 10.5 sacks in six games, which led the nation through seven weeks, and broke a 36-year-old Texas record with 5.5 sacks at Tennessee in September. PFF has him with 26 pressures and an 87.0 pass-rush grade . He had 21 sacks across his first two seasons, and Easterling ranks him as the No. 1 edge rusher in the 2027 class .
There are two things to watch, though. Simmons sprained his ankle against Florida on Oct. 17 and could miss a few weeks, and Easterling's scouting report on Simmons notes that the 6-foot-3, 246-pounder can get washed out of running plays when blockers lock onto his chest.
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Bowles' defense relies on disguise as much as anything. A rusher who can win from either side or stand up as a blitzer would give Bowles more ways to scheme around Bain, and with Diaby's contract up, Tampa Bay may need both of them sooner than expected.
This story was originally published by Athlon on Oct 24, 2026, where it first appeared in the NFL section. Add Athlon as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
