The Tampa Bay Buccaneers suddenly found themselves one outside linebacker down after second-year player YaYa Diaby suffered a high ankle sprain on July 31, which meant they needed to bring in reinforcements.

The Buccaneers moved quickly to sign two-time FCS All-American outside linebacker Jay Person with the hopes his 27.0 career sacks at Chattanooga might translate well to their scheme.

Person capped his career at Chattanooga by being named SoCon Defensive Player of the Year in back-to-back seasons in 2022 and 2023. After an open tryout, Person was invited to minicamp with the New England Patriots but was not invited to training camp.

It wasn’t the only move the Buccaneers made this week. Offensive lineman Sua Opeta was placed on injured reserve after injuring his knee during training camp, meaning he can’t return in 2024.

From Buccaneers.com: “The knee injury veteran guard Sua Opeta suffered in practice on Tuesday night will cost him the 2024 season. On Friday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers placed Opeta on injured reserve and used the vacated roster spot to sign rookie outside linebacker Jay Person.”

Diaby’s Injury Deals Huge Blow to Edge Rushers
Person is being 100 percent brought in to help shore up the Buccaneers’ pass rush in the offseason because of injuries and off-field drama.

Bucs have signed an undrafted rookie outside linebacker in Jay Person, who played at Appalachian State and Chattanooga. Wearing 44, had 27 sacks total in college. Was with Patriots earlier this summer.

The injury to Diaby is especially disheartening because he’s coming off a rookie season in which he led the Buccaneers with 7.5 sacks despite playing in less than half of his team’s defensive stats.

Diaby won’t return for any preseason games, meaning he could be out the better part of the next month. Which could mean most of the progress he made this summer could be lost as he rehabilitates his injury.

To the Buccaneers credit, they probably felt like they had a plan in place for this exact scenario of Diaby or another edge rusher getting hurt when they signed veteran outside linebacker Randy Gregory to a 1-year, $5 million free-agent contract on April 4.

The only problem? Gregory never showed up to minicamp and never showed up to training camp and was a no-show, no-call. The Buccaneers were forced to put him on the Reserve/Did Not Report list at the beginning of training camp on July 24.

“This isn’t exactly ideal in that Diaby getting as many reps as he can would be nice, but there’s no need to rush him back and sacrifice games that matter,” wrote The Pewter Plank’s Josh Hill. “It’s a bummer we won’t see him until September — and there’s probably going to be a ramp up process over the first few games — but his absence is also a blessing in disguise.

“Linebacker is a deep, if not unproven, position group for the Buccaneers. With Diaby out, the spotlight will be on guys like Markees Watts, Jose Ramirez, and rookie Chris Braswell to step up. We were always going to see in action, but their playing time and chances to secure meaningful playing time in the regular season has significantly increased.”

Person Put Up Huge Stats Against FCS Competition
Person, 6-foot-2 and 233 pounds, was a four-time All-SoCon pick at Chattanooga after redshirting at Appalachian State in 2018.

On the FCS level, Person dominated as much as any defensive player in the country over the last two seasons and, along with his 27.0 sacks, finished his career with 233 tackles, 56 tackles for loss, 9 forced fumbles and 3 fumble recoveries.

Person was a two-time finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award, given annually to the nation’s best FCS defensive player.