The writing was on the wall for Tampa Bay Buccaneers edge rusher Joe Tryon-Shoyinka before the 2024 season that it would be his last with the team that took him in the first round (No. 32 overall) of the 2021 NFL draft.
Now, Tryon-Shoyinka gets a chance to reboot his career somewhere else and gets to do so playing opposite the NFL’s premiere pass rusher on the Cleveland Browns, where he can learn from 2023 NFL Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett.
“Sources: The #Browns are signing OLB Joe Tryon–Shoyinka to a 1-year, $4.75M deal. The former 1st-round pick recorded 15 sacks in four seasons with the #Bucs,” FOX Sports NFL Insider Jordan Schultz wrote on his official X account on March 11.
The Buccaneers declined the fifth-year option on Tryon-Shoyinka ahead of the NFL’s May 2, 2024, deadline, according to Fox Sports’ Greg Auman. Tryon-Shoyinka played out the final season of the 4-year, $11.1 million contract he signed in 2021.
“As expected, Bucs will not be exercising the fifth-year option for 2021 first-round pick OLB Joe Tryon-Shoyinka,” Auman posted on X. “Would have been $13.2 million for 2025. He has totaled 13 sacks in three seasons.”
Tryon-Shoyinka Constantly Came Up Short With Bucs
Tryon-Shoyinka, in his third season as a full-time starter in 2024, had career lows of 23 tackles, 2.0 sacks, 3 TFL and 4 QB hits — the latest regression for a player who has continually gone backwards since he was taken with the final pick in the first round of the 2021 NFL draft.
One of the problems with Tryon-Shoyinka throughout his career has been his lack of versatility. If he wasn’t rushing the passer, he wasn’t much good to the defense. And most of the time, he wasn’t very good at that, even.
The Buccaneers have tried desperately to fill out their defensive front in the NFL draft in recent years, and with varied results.
Tampa Bay used their first pick in three consecutive drafts to add edge rushers or interior defensive linemen with busts in Tryon-Shoyinka in 2021 and defensive end Logan Hall in 2022 followed by interior defensive lineman Calijah Kancey at No. 19 overall in 2023. Out of that bunch, only Kancey looks like he’ll eventually pay off after he led the Buccaneers with 7.5 sacks in 2024
Entering Football Purgatory With Browns
By joining the Browns, Tryon-Shoyinka is willingly submitting himself to football purgatory.
The Browns have been neck and neck with the New York Jets as the NFL’s worst run team over the last decade, although the Browns have the upper hand when it comes to bad contracts, including currently being home to the worst contract in NFL history.
Anything the Browns do over the next few years is tied to the fully guaranteed, 5-year, $230 million contract signed by quarterback Deshaun Watson in March 2022. While Watson has converted large chunks of his contract to signing bonuses the last 2 years, he’s still owed $92 million over the next 2 seasons that the Browns can’t get out of until the contract runs out following the 2026 season.
Taking a quarterback with the No. 2 overall pick in the first round of the 2025 NFL draft would go a long way toward making things right — likely Miami’s Cam Ward — but it’s not a clear cut solution.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Former Bucs’ First Round Pick Gets Fresh Start in AFC North appeared first on Heavy Sports.