Bucs outside linebacker Joe Tryon-Shoyinka playing moneyball this year

TAMPA ― Money is a huge motivating factor in professional sports. General managers will tell you it’s not always a bad thing to have a player entering the final year of his contract.

Coaches can scream until they’re blue in the face, but what players usually respond to is the green dangled in front of them.

Which brings us to Bucs outside linebacker Joe Tryon-Shoyinka.

The final pick in the first round of the 2021 draft, the former Washington star is in the last season of the four-year, $11.17 million contract he signed as a rookie.

After Tryon-Shoyinka managed just 13 sacks over his first three NFL seasons, including a career-best five last year, the Bucs declined their $13.25 million option for 2025. That will make him an unrestricted free agent in March.

“It’s just one of those things. It’s an opportunity to take it as a challenge,” Tryon-Shoyinka said Friday. “Overcoming adversity is a part of everyone’s life. You’ve got to put your back against the wall and trust what you know got you here and lean on your teammates, your brotherhood, and ultimately just continue to stack these days, and I think we’ll get to where we want to go, and that’s the Super Bowl. That’s what I’m looking forward to right now.”

Tryon-Shoyinka was 21 the day he was drafted by the Bucs. He played only two seasons with the Huskies, recording eight sacks as a redshirt sophomore in 2019. When the Pac-12 originally announced it would postpone the 2020 season due to COVID-19, Tryon-Shoyinka left school to prepare for the draft.

As a rookie, he was stuck behind Pro Bowlers Jason Pierre-Paul and Shaquil Barrett (both since retired) and played only 49% of the snaps, sometimes doubling as a standup inside linebacker on passing downs. Last season, Tryon-Shoyinka lost his starting job to rookie Yaya Diaby, who led the Bucs with 7-1/2 sacks.

Now at just 25, Tryon-Shoyinka is among the oldest players in the outside linebackers room and one of its leaders.

“I like it,” he said. " ... I can have my rookie (Chris) Braswell — he’s been super receptive to anything — asking questions after every play, asking how he can do something better. So, it just keeps me on my toes and elevates my game when I have to have the right answer for someone. It definitely improves my game.”

One of the more athletic players on the defensive front at 6-foot-5, 259 pounds, Tryon-Shoyinka reported to training camp appearing noticeably leaner than in past seasons. He says it’s the result of a better nutrition plan and not succumbing to a sweet tooth.

“I’m just changing my habits,” he said. “I have certain things I like to play around with, whether that’s food, diet, and you can always get better sleep. I try to get eight hours of sleep every night. You sweat a lot out here. I lost seven pounds in practice just in sweat. I’ve just got to stay lean. You don’t want to eat bad food; you’ll feel slow out here.”

Tryon-Shoyinka said sugar has an especially strong lure.

“When you’re late at night and you see a little bit of the Pop-Tarts or the Rice Krispies Treats, you’re like, ‘Let’s put those away,’” he said. “Probably try a little protein shake before going to bed. But those sugars are hard to give up.”

Head coach Todd Bowles would like to see Tryon-Shoyinka feast more on opposing quarterbacks. Too often, he says, the Bucs edge rusher got to the quarterback but could not put him on the ground.

“Obviously, you want to see a couple sack numbers when he finishes, but everything else he does very well,” Bowles said. “We move him across the line a lot. He’s probably our most athletic guy down there that we do a lot of things with. But he needs to get better and understand the defense and take advantage of this opportunities.”

Bowles refers to Tryon-Shoyinka as one of his “chess pieces,” a player who is equally adept at playing his position as a pass rusher, setting the edge on the run, dropping into coverage or blitzing from different areas on the field.

Bowles insists that versatility, which may have hindered Tryon-Shoyinka’s development as an outside linebacker earlier in his career, won’t keep him from competing for a starting spot.

“(Inside linebacker) Lavonte (David) is a chess piece. (Safety Antoine) Winfield is a chess piece. They start as well,” Bowles said. “By chess piece, I just mean they can do more than two things. But there’s a competition down at outside ‘backer, and we expect him to play outside ‘backer, so there’s no difference there.”

The good news for Tryon-Shoyinka is that if he has a good year, he won’t have to wait another season to become an unrestricted free agent. His pairing with Diaby promises to be one that could benefit both players.

“Me and Yaya just compete to get off the rock every time,” Tryon-Shoyinka said. “I can’t say enough about how much I love that dude.. ... We teach each other a lot, so (I’m) just excited to keep growing with that dude and the rest of this defense.

“I think we’ll be happy, if we take our mindset every day and just continue to grow from that, I think we’ll be happy with the results.”

If so, the Bucs not picking up their fifth-year option could mean even bigger bucks for Tryon-Shoyinka.

• • •

Sign up for the Sports Today newsletter to get daily updates on the Bucs, Rays, Lightning and college football across Florida.

Never miss out on the latest with your favorite Tampa Bay sports teams. Follow our coverage on Instagram, X and Facebook.