Calijah Kancey hasn’t been able to make an impact every week this season as he’s battled injuries, but he certainly tried his best on Monday Night Football.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers may have lost a tough overtime game against the Kansas City Chiefs, but it wasn’t because Kancey wasn’t able to make an impact.
Kancey recorded two tackles (two solo), two tackles for loss, two sacks and three quarterback hits against the Chiefs.
While he missed the first five games of the season, he’s recorded 12 tackles (10 solo), five tackles for loss and three sacks over the last four games. That’s certainly an achievement from the center of the Bucs’ defensive line.
Kancey racked up 26 tackles (19 solo), 10 tackles for loss, four sacks and a pass breakup in 14 games last season, all starts. He missed most of the first month of the season and emerged upon entering the lineup as one of the more impactful young defensive tackles in the NFL.
And in two playoff games, he recorded six tackles (four solo), two tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks and a pass breakup.
The sky is the limit for Kancey. He’s an undersized defensive tackle with the sort of twitch and get-off speed that’s nearly impossible for opposing offensive linemen to stop. He flashed last season, despite his youth and inexperience, and he’s doing it again this season.
The Buccaneers drafted Kancey with the 19th pick of the 2023 NFL Draft, and when healthy, he’s rewarded the Bucs with stellar defensive line play.
Kancey put together one of the best Pitt careers in recent memory, earning his spot in the NFL after a standout career in Pittsburgh — arriving as a little-recruited three-star out of the Miami area.
Kancey was the 2022 ACC Defensive Player of the Year and a two-time All-American (just the 13th player in program history to earn unanimous honors in 2022) during his time at Pitt.
He racked up 31 tackles (17 solo), 14.5 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks in 2022, in just 11 games, as he cemented himself as the leading interior pass rusher in college football — the No. 1 trait that attracted NFL teams in his draft cycle. His speed and quickness at 281 pounds are almost unheard of.
In his Pitt career, through just three seasons, Calijah Kancey recorded 91 tackles (52 solo), 34.5 tackles for loss, 16 sacks, three pass breakups and a forced fumble. It was a career that started fast and only got faster on the way to immediate success at the NFL level.
