The Bucs have added a number of items to their line of defense this offseason. A’Shawn Robinson as considered one of their first free agent additions. A later reunion with Rakeem Nunez-Roches passed off in free company. DeMonte Capehart was a Day 3 add within the draft and the staff believes he has a excessive ceiling.
Nevertheless it’s essential to take an early have a look at 2027 draft-eligible prospect, Oregon defensive deal with A’Mauri Washington, who would possibly be capable to take up the mantle if Vita Vea departs after this season.
However Nunez-Roches and Robinson are each below contract for simply 2026, and Vea is coming into a contract 12 months. There’s a stable probability the room will look significantly completely different as soon as once more in 2027. And there’s a stable probability Tampa Bay invests in one other defensive deal with within the 2027 NFL Draft.
A’Mauri Washington Measurables
Professional Soccer Focus lists A’Mauri Washington at 6-foot-3 and 330 kilos, giving him the right body for a nostril deal with. However what drew me to evaluating him early was his look on Bruce Feldman’s “Freaks List.”
A’Mauri Washington’s numbers made me do a triple-take when Oregon workers despatched them over. For a 338-pound man to clock 20.89 mph and vertical leap 36 inches is mind-blowing. Washington additionally squatted 755 kilos, bench pressed 475 and energy cleaned 385. FREAK: https://t.co/EHum0qnN3Y
Twenty miles per hour is an unbelievable high finish for a linebacker, not to mention an enormous defensive lineman. A 36-inch vertical would put Washington within the 98th percentile for inside defensive linemen.
If the Bucs transfer on from Vita Vea, or vice versa, discovering a 320-plus pound defensive deal with who can also be an elite athlete can be a tall process. However Washington could match that invoice and subsequently is an interesting proposition to me.
A’Mauri Washington’s 2025 Manufacturing
Washington’s conventional stats in 2025:
Video games – 15Tackles – 33TFL’s – 4.5Sacks – 1.5PBU’s – 8
Further info from Professional Soccer Focus:
Snaps – 656Pass-rush Snaps – 358Pressures – 22Defensive Stops – 24
PFF credit him for 27 tackles, 2 sacks and three TFLs
Utilizing PFF information, his manufacturing profile reveals a participant who’s stable throughout the board however fails to face out in any explicit space.
Story of the Tape
I watched three of A’Mauri Washington’s video games from 2025: Week 5 at Penn State, week 13 towards USC and their Bowl Recreation towards Texas Tech.
Overview
A’Mauri Washington is an athletically gifted defensive deal with, a 338-pound inside defender who strikes like a participant 60 kilos lighter. The athletic basis offers him a uncommon ceiling that the majority massive males can solely dream of, each in testing and on tape. However his analysis comes right down to his play model not matching his foundational bodily profile.
When he performs with leverage, his testing profile reveals up instantly. When he performs tall, which is totally too usually, the drive, the stability, and the point-of-attack anchor all fail at a vital stage. His pad stage is the crux of virtually every part, each professional and con, about him.
Oregon DT A’Mauri Washington – Photograph by: IMAGN Pictures through Reuters Join
Strengths
Elite athleticism for his dimension – Unbelievable motion abilities for such a big body. Mild on his toes, strikes extraordinarily nicely laterally, and reveals unfastened joints and fluid hips which can be unusual at his mass.
A’Mauri Washington is listed at 6’3 330 lbs. pic.twitter.com/jr5I2ZsOKN
Lightning-quick get-off – First step and snap anticipation are a real weapon. Washington is incessantly shifting earlier than blockers can set, and the quickness is an actual edge on the inside.
Various, purposeful hand package – Makes use of his fingers nicely and is an lively hand-fighter. Washington throws a long-arm to maintain blockers out of his pads and create separation, runs a club-and-slide (clubbing the blocker a technique whereas sliding laterally to the alternative hole, a really Elijah Roberts-esque rep), and has an arm-over/swim to clear and escape. For an inside participant his dimension, that may be a genuinely numerous, three-move rush plan.
Excessive-value stunter – His get-off and dimension make him a wonderful looping and penetrating piece on video games. Washington crosses gaps shortly, works into the body of a second blocker, pulls his personal blocker with him, and absorbs the double, liberating a looping linebacker or edge for a clear free run. A significant share of his disruption is by design because the space-creator, which props up the cease and stress charges even on snaps the place his job is to spring another person.
Latent, translatable energy – The bull rush is his finest NFL-projectable trait. Late towards the USC heart on a 1-on-1, Washington bulled the blocker into the quarterback’s lap, and the identical rep popped once more towards Texas Tech. When he commits to energy and sinks his pads, Washington turns into a drive of nature able to dropping solo blockers right into a quarterback’s lap.
Washington has this in him. He simply doesn’t go to it practically usually sufficient. pic.twitter.com/AyQ0ftIJSV
Weaknesses
Pad Stage – Washington performs too excessive, and it’s the root reason for practically each limitation on his tape. It results in nearly the entire points listed beneath.
Energy and Drive Loss – As a result of he will get too upright, and due to how gentle his toes are, Washington loses the drive and displacement you’ll count on from his dimension. For a way massive and powerful Washington could look and take a look at, it hardly ever reveals up on tape.
Stability Points – Washington’s rising pad stage prices him stability and forces him to lose stability persistently.
Level-of-attack and anchor within the run sport. When he performs excessive, Washington struggles to carry the purpose of assault and will get moved off his spot. For a participant whose dimension profiles him partly as an immovable inside anchor, that is the most costly consequence of the leverage subject. It additionally explains why Oregon used him as a 3-technique greater than as a shade or straight-up nostril.
Ending and trait choice. The manufacturing percentiles flag it and the movie explains it: Washington wins reps he doesn’t convert (sack charge forty first, conversion thirty fourth). He leans on finesse (club-slide, swim, long-arm) and quickness, and treats the bull rush, his most translatable trait, as an occasional changeup slightly than his base. His most projectable NFL ability is the one he makes use of least.
Abstract
The expertise is simple to identify. A’Mauri Washington is a disruptive, athletically uncommon inside penetrator and high-end stunter whose ceiling is gated nearly totally by pad stage. Repair the leverage and the tantalizing reported testing and large dimension that exist already begin translating to drive, stability, and an anchor. And the underused bull rush turns into a basis slightly than a flash. He doesn’t want so as to add instruments. He must play decrease and make energy his fastball.
My finest means at describing who he’s versus who he could be is Robert Doback’s clarification of his childhood within the phenomenal comedy, Step Brothers.
“When I was a kid, when I was a little boy, I always wanted to be a dinosaur. I wanted to be a Tyrannosaurus Rex more than anything in the world. I made my arms short and I roamed the backyard, I chased the neighborhood cats, I growled and I roared. Everybody knew me and was afraid of me. And one day my dad said, ‘Bobby, you are 17. It’s time to throw childish things aside,’ and I said, ‘Okay, Pop.’ But he didn’t really say that, he said, ‘Stop being a f*cking dinosaur and get a job.’”
Washington’s present playstyle –the place he tries to win with velocity and agility, beating blockers laterally – is his Tyrannosaurus Rex. Nevertheless it’s time he throws away infantile issues, decrease his pad stage and begin bullying opponents. That’s how he’s going to get an NFL job.
