Since he was taken 19th overall in the 2023 NFL Draft, Calijah Kancey's yet to play a full regular season.
A pesky calf injury has slowed him down and forced him to miss eight games over his first two seasons.
If Kancey can stay healthy for 17 games in 2025, he's confident he'll emerge as the NFL sack champion.
"I think you'd be looking at the sack leader if [I] suit up for all 17 games," Kancey said Monday, via team transcript.
It's quite a lofty aspiration for a player who's totaled 11.5 sacks in two seasons, but the 2023 first-rounder believes the key to future success will be early season health.
Kancey explained that he'd spoken with Bucs head coach Todd Bowles about focusing on being ready for the season and avoiding the injury problems that have plagued him over both of his seasons so far. In his rookie campaign, Kancey was injured in Week 1 and missed the following three games. Last year, he missed the initial five games of the season.
"It was moreso me making sure that I'm ready come the beginning of the season," Kancey said of his discussion with his head coach, "Not missing those [eight] games that I did the first two seasons, and really just making sure I'm doing everything to not miss those games and continue to dominate at a high level."
He'll have some in-house competition for that sack title, too.
The Bucs have added edge Haason Reddick, have former second-rounder Logan Hall and outside linebacker YaYa Diaby believes he'll have something to say about a potential sack crown.
"Hey, I want him to win as much as he wants me to win, but that's just something we're going to have to fight for," Diaby said. "It's going to be fun."
It's an attention-getting goal, but after a four-sack rookie season in 14 games, Kancey posted 7.5 sacks in 12 games. So, there was marked improvement in production. As he heads into his age-24 season, perhaps the Pitt product might well break out in phenomenal fashion.
