Bucs Unlikely To Pick Up Joe Tryon-Shoyinka’s Fifth-Year Option

The Bucs had high hopes for Joe Tryon-Shoyinka when they drafted him 32nd overall in 2021. Coming off of a Super Bowl victory in which their veteran outside linebackers Shaq Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul shined, the team was hoping to bolster that room with a young athletic ball of clay that could eventually step in for Pierre-Paul.

At 6-foot-5 and 259 pounds with 34-inch arms, he had enviable size and length. He built on that hope with a good preseason in his rookie campaign, racking up six pressures and two sacks in just 38 pass rush snaps.

But since that promising beginning, Tryon-Shoyinka has been disappointing when measured against his first-round draft pick status. Over three seasons he has logged just 13 sacks to go with 114 tackles, 18 tackles for loss, six passes defensed, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. But is perhaps more well known for the volume of sacks he failed to finish than he is for the ones he has created.

In 2021 and 2022, Tryon-Shoyinka lost out on multiple quarterback takedowns for a simple and maddening reason: he missed the tackles. Pro Football Focus has him with a missed tackle rate of over 20% in both the 2021 and 2022 seasons. He since improved upon that mark this year, reducing that rate to 14.9%. But despite the improvement in finishing tackles, he was only able to improve his sack count from only four in each of his first two seasons to five in 2023.

JTS’ fifth sack of the season didn’t come until Week 18 last year. But it was a doozy, as it came in the fourth quarter by way of a strip-sack that sealed Tampa Bay’s win at Carolina and made the Bucs NFC South champions for a third season in a row.

Tryon-Shoyinka was also demoted to rotational backup midway through the season as rookie Yaya Diaby supplanted him as the starter opposite veteran Shaq Barrett. This all points to the Bucs not picking up his fifth-year option and risking a fully guaranteed $12,175,000 salary in 2025 on him.

That kind of money can buy you a whole lot more in free agency in today’s NFL. In this upcoming free agent class pass rushers like Za’Darius Smith, Josh Uche or perhaps Bryce Huff all could possibly be in play for that kind of price tag.

Comparing Bucs OLB To Other Edge Rushers

Last year, NFL teams had to decide whether to pick up fifth-year options on two edge rushers. Washington’s Chase Young and Jacksonville’s K’Lavon Chaisson. Young battled injuries throughout much of his first three years in the league. This stifled his production as he only had nine sacks and 71 pressures over that time period.

Bucs OLB Joe Tryon-Shoyinka and Bears QB Justin Fields – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Compare that with Joe Tryon-Shoyinka’s 13 sacks and 105 pressures and the Bucs pass rusher actually looks better. But when you consider the playing time difference, Young’s efficiency comes much more to the forefront.

Chaisson was never able to develop into a starter and generated just 49 pressures and three sacks. Tryon-Shoyinka, through health and production, outplayed both edge rushers from the 2020 draft who did not have their fifth-year options picked up. But what does his career look like stacked up against edge rushers who did get their option exercised?

Looking back to the 2019 draft class there are a few more cases that can be compared to Tryon-Shoyinka’s career thus far. Nick Bosa, Clelin Ferrell, Josh Allen, Rashan Gary, Brian Burns and Montez Sweat were all selected in the first round of that year’s draft. Here is a table showing the pressures, pressure rate and sacks for each of those players, with JTS, Young and Chaisson included, along with the result of their fifth-year option decision.

JTS occupies an interesting space. His pressure total is just one less than Sweat and he is only 3.5 sacks behind Gary at this point in each of their respective careers. However, Gary’s efficiency was much better than Tryon-Shoyinka’s and Sweat finished more pressures with sacks.

Ultimately, the lack of finishes is likely to prevent Bucs general manager Jason Licht from exercising the option. If Licht does pass on the option, it will mark the first time in his tenure with Tampa Bay that he does so. Up until this point Licht exercised the fifth-year option or signed the player to a long-term contract for every one of his first-round picks. This list includes Mike Evans, Jameis Winston, Vernon Hargraves III, O.J. Howard, Vita Vea, Devin White and Tristan Wirfs.

What’s Next For Joe Tryon-Shoyinka?

Bucs OLB Joe Tryon-Shoyinka – Photo by: USA Today

Even if the Bucs elect not to give Joe Tryon-Shoyinka the one-year extension, he will still more than likely be on Tampa Bay’s roster in 2024. Just because he hasn’t quite played up to the option does not mean he isn’t solid part of an edge rotation.

And with his 2024 salary cap hit of $3,554,487 being both extremely reasonable and almost completely guaranteed, he still presents value to the club. With Tampa Bay likely to release 31-year old Shaq Barrett this season, JTS’s name is likely atop the Bucs depth chart in pencil right now opposite YaYa Diaby for the time being.

This will give him one last opportunity to build value before entering free agency in 2025. Chase Young was able to do so this past year and is now looking at a deal worth $15 million per year or more, far eclipsing the fifth-year option he would have played on in 2024.

JTS will be hoping to do the same.