Buccaneers

Coming out of college, Buccaneers OLB Yaya Diaby was considered to be an edge-setter against the run, yet last season he was tied for eighth in the league in quarterback pressures.

Diaby led the team with seven sacks, but players with the same number of pressures, such as Texans DE Danielle Hunter, finished well into the double digits in sacks. This led Diaby to work on finishing plays this offseason, hoping to increase his sack totals and make a bigger impact.

“Just focusing on pass rush, man, and finishing,” Diaby said, via the team website. “That’s just been my whole scenario. Everything everybody’s been saying: ‘He can’t finish. He gets a lot of pressure.’ That’s just been my whole thing this offseason, trying to find ways to finish, trying to find ways to rush smart. Having guys like Calijah [Kancey], you’ve got to be able to rush smart and be where you need to be. It’s going to help me out a lot.”

Falcons

Falcons QB Michael Penix Jr. has been back at practice with no restrictions for a couple of weeks now, but it looks like that’s going to be too tight of a turnaround for him to play. Atlanta announced that not only would veteran QB Tua Tagovailoa start in Week 1, but that Penix would be inactive. It appears the former first-round pick told HC Kevin Stefanski he doesn’t feel ready to return.  

“I had that conversation and I just told him, ‘I’m not where I want to be right now,'” Penix explained via USA Today’s Matt Urben. “I want to be able to be 100 percent so I can help this team win football games. And I’m really close.”

“I want to be stronger. I want to be able to be out there and give the team 100 percent. And if I don’t feel like I can do that, that’s not fair for this team, that’s not fair for this organization,” Penix added. “I want to make sure whenever I am out there, I’m 100 percent and there’s no doubt in my mind that I trust my knee and I trust to go out there and help this team win football games.”

Panthers

Panthers TE Darren Waller noted he has been taking a different approach this offseason, given that his stint with the Dolphins didn’t end well last season after he ended his retirement.

“I think last year there was definitely a step back, probably in my long speed,” Waller explained to Panthers.com. “Just because I showed up to training camp with no football foundation of training to the Dolphins. I think it was just all just a byproduct of showing up playing a football season without laying that entire foundation, thinking you can just show up like the old dude playing pickup at the gym. It’s going to be tough.”

Panthers HC Dave Canales was asked what he thinks of Waller after observing the veteran in his natural habitat during camp.

“Big and fast,” Canales noted. “The offensive stuff, the playbook stuff has been really smooth, really easy for him, and we have totally different terminology than where he was at in Miami before, but an intelligent guy, hard worker, so he’s been fantastic from a mental standpoint. And then physically, he looks great, he looks fast…when you look at Darren, you watch him cover ground, and you’re like, ‘Hey, he hit 20.8 today on his GPS on this route,’ and you’re like, he was running that fast? You don’t realize it. But that’s been cool for Bryce Young to be able to see how his angles change and how to throw it to him, and I’m excited to see what he can bring.”