Buccaneers: 3 prospects to avoid in 2021 NFL Draft

3. Jalen Twyman, IDL, Pittsburgh

Jalen Twyman is another player who opted out of the 2020 season after having fans in the summer. People loved Twyman’s ability to shoot gaps and rush the passer, but had questions about his ability to play with strength and stop the run. Unfortunately, those concerns are still on the table because he opted out. To make matters worse, he bulked up for pro-day testing and then tested very poorly. People see Twyman’s pass-rush ability and immediately imagine him next to Vita Vea. The problem with those projections is that they completely ignore how Todd Bowels runs his defense.

When looking at what made the Buccaneers defense so special last year, just look at the front seven. Ndamukong Suh, Williams Gholston, Vita Vea, Rakeem Nunez-Roches, and Steven McLendon eat up space and use their strength to open up blitzing lanes for their linebackers to come in and apply pressure. Looking at what Twyman struggles with, it is exactly what makes the Buccaneers front seven special.

Twyman is not the type of player who can maintain his gap and help eat space for the linebackers to run through. Drafting Twyman would be a complete deviation from the scheme and would make no sense for what the Buccaneers do on defense and what made it so successful.