One of the youngest players in the 2026 draft class heads to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in one expert's latest mock draft.
Pass rushing was hard to come by for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this season.
The Bucs finished tied for 18th in the NFL among pass-rush defenses, with 37 sacks and averaging 2.2 sacks per game.
Linebacker Yaya Diaby led the team with seven sacks and 68 quarterback pressures. No other Buccaneers player had more than five sacks or more than 43 QB pressures. Defensive tackle Vita Vea, with 4.5, was the only other player to have at least three sacks.
The Buccaneers need youth and depth at the edge position. There is a player in the 2026 class who is very young, but is already showing flashes of dominance as a pass-rusher. Tampa Bay landed him in the latest mock draft from Dane Brugler of The Athletic.
With the 15th pick of this mock draft, the Buccaneers select edge Keldric Faulk out of Auburn.
Faulk, at 20, is one of the youngest players in this draft class. (He doesn't turn 21 until September.) But he does have excellent qualities that can help him develop into a very good pass-rusher at the next level.
Brugler notes that Faulk is similar to Mykell Williams from last year's class. Williams was drafted 11th overall by the San Francisco 49ers, despite not blowing up the stat sheet. Williams totaled 14 sacks and 21.5 tackles for loss in three years at Georgia. Faulk had just 10 sacks and 19.5 TFL in three years at Auburn, including two sacks and five TFL in 2025.
However, the scheme Faulk's working in at Auburn doesn't allow many opportunities to up his stats. Auburn plays a three-man front, so Faulk didn't rush very often from a wide alignment, as Brugler notes.
That said, Faulk has great size (6-foot-6, 270 pounds) and long arms, and is already becoming a problem for opposing offensive linemen. He can be devastating against both the run and pass. Don't let the lack of numbers fool you -- Faulk can play at a high level.
We could be heading towards the same debate as we had with Texas A&M edge defender Shemar Stewart, and Faulk totaled 5.5 more sacks than Stewart had in college. But Stewart flashed the traits and had a productive, albeit limited, rookie season with the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Buccaneers are desperate to get after opposing quarterbacks more often than they did in 2025. Before their Week 9 bye, the Bucs recorded 25 sacks. They had just 12 after the bye, including five games with one sack or fewer.
Hasson Reddick and Logan Hall are set to become free agents. 2019 fourth-round pick Anthony Nelson could be a name to watch in 2026, but more depth is still needed.
Faulk falling into Tampa's lap at No. 15 would be an ideal scenario in April.
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