Bucs' starter that they absolutely cannot afford to lose carted off field during training camp

The Bucs got some bad news on the injury front earlier this week when veteran guard Sua Opeta went down with a knee injury during practice.  As it turns out, Opeta suffered a torn ACL and will be out for the season.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the only target of the injury bug this week at One Buc Place.  On Thursday morning, edge rusher Yaya Diaby suffered an ankle injury and had to be carted off the field, per multiple outlets.

Fortunately, per Pewter Report , the initial word on Diaby is that it does not appear to be related to an Achilles tendon tear, which would have been the worst-case scenario.  As such, there is some reason for optimism until further word is revealed by the team.  Todd Bowles said the severity is unknown at this point.

Diaby, who impressed with 7.5 sacks in his rookie season last year, is projected as one of the Bucs' starting edge rushers, a group that's high on potential and low on proven productivity.  With Shaq Barrett signing with Miami before recently retiring , the Bucs are relying upon a step forward from Joe Tryon-Shoyinka across from Diaby.

If the Bucs were to lose Diaby for any significant period of time, the options behind him aren't ideal.  Anthony Nelson is solid against the run, but he's not going to generate much in the way of a rush.  Asking rookie Chris Braswell to jump into a starting role out of the gate is also not what the Bucs would want to do.

If Diaby is looking at an ankle sprain of any kind of severity - even a high ankle sprain - that would be a far cry better than what could have been.  That would likely mean they'd have their starting edge rusher to start the season or sometime early in the season.  Given how this roster is set up, that would be a huge bullet dodged by the Bucs.

We'll find out what the Bucs have to say about his status soon.

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