Welcome back to Saturday Scouting, where I profile a player, concept, or matchup that is of interest to the Bucs. This week’s subject is one of Tampa Bay’s most interesting undrafted free agent additions: Josiah Green.
After playing three years at Dartmouth, starting two, Green played 2025 at Duke where he amassed 37 tackles, 7.0 TFL’s and 3.5 sacks. That pop in the ACC was enough to put him on the Bucs’ radar.
Josiah Green’s Production And Measurable Profiles
Green finished 2025 with an 84th percentile pressure rate, 70th percentile pass rush win rate, 84th percentile sack rate, 69th percentile conversion rate, 15th percentile stop rate, 7th percentile tackle rate, and 5th percentile missed tackle rate. All of these percentiles were derived from Pro Football Focus data.
The stark split between his production as a pass rusher and as a run defender is almost exactly mirrored in his physical and testing profile where his length and weight fall at or near the bottom of the population while his testing numbers are near the top.
Every size measurement is in the bottom 8% of the position. Every athletic measurement other than the 40-yard is between the 75th and 94th percentile. The 94th-percentile 10-yard split and agility testing (86th percentile short shuttle and 75th percentile 3-cone) are the most important for an interior pass rusher, and he has both. He is what he is. He cannot be coached bigger. He cannot grow longer arms. The frame is locked in, and so is the athletic profile.
Every pass-rush metric is at the 69th percentile or higher. Every run-defense and tackling metric is at the 15th percentile or lower. The frame predicts the production. The production predicts the role.
Saturday Scouting The Tape
I watched three games: 2025 N.C. State (week four), Georgia Tech (week eight) and Clemson (week 10). My goal was to see if the tape matched the production split, or if there was something else causing the stark split. And let me tell you, they match.
What Works
Green wins when his first step wins. He has to disrupt before the offensive line can establish latch, because once they do, his frame works against him. When his burst gets him into the backfield clean, he creates real problems for the offense. The Clemson tape included a quick A-gap penetration that forced the quarterback to backpedal and throw off his back foot. Against N.C. State, he forced a fumble on an option handoff, blew up a wide zone concept and freed the linebacker, and a recorded second-reaction sack off a stunt.
Georgia Tech was the most encouraging game. Eight distinct pass-rush moves or techniques across 15 pass-rush snaps, including a hump move, a rip-through against a reaching center, and an inside step that beat a guard for a near-sack.
When he can harness it correctly, Josiah Green’s ability to penetrate the pocket abruptly is impressive. pic.twitter.com/3MgZ6MdQlc
— Josh Queipo (@JoshQueipo_NFL) May 16, 2026
He flashes processing more than the percentile profile suggests. Against Georgia Tech specifically, his eyes won reps that his physical tools alone wouldn’t have won. He recognized a quarterback option swing and worked inside the left tackle’s shoulder to make the stop. He read a flash fake and worked across the pocket to chase a rollout for late pressure. It’s a tight rope for him to walk. He has to win quick as a run fitter which means he has less time to wait and watch the play develop.
His pass rush expanded across the season. At N.C. State, his pass-rush wins were almost entirely burst-and-rip. At Georgia Tech, he showed rip, hump, club-and-arm-over, stab-and-cross-hand long-arm, hand slap, inside step, and a salvage-rep bend. At Clemson, the best interior offensive line on his schedule, he beat the center using two different mechanisms. An arm-over for a pressure and a quick-burst penetration for a pressure and QB hit. He has a decent bag that he isn’t afraid to use.
He has a leverage anchor against single blocks. Across all three games, when he could set his pad level before contact and engage head-up, he held up against single defenders.
What Doesn’t Work
Green struggles to hold up against double teams. And it’s not a technique issue. His smaller frame gets overwhelmed despite his explosive lower half. His 7th-percentile weight and 8th-percentile arm length make him uniquely vulnerable to coordinated double teams, and against P4-caliber interior offensive linemen, he got moved off his spot or pushed vertically backward at a rate that would be disqualifying for an every-down body. Now imagine that against NFL level talent.
Most worrisome is his missed tackle rate. 22.0% in 2023, 17.6% in 2024 and 25.0% in 2025. Those reps are real and a sustainable issue. He creates disruption that puts his body in awkward positions where his shorter arms can’t compensate. Across three games, I logged seven plays where he beat his man, arrived in the backfield with the ball-carrier in his sights, and failed to make the tackle. Three of those misses were attributed directly to his short arms. The most painful was a Clemson rep where he looped around the line, knocked the right tackle back with a strong punch, stopped and redirected upfield as the quarterback scrambled, and could not corral the QB because his arms could not reach.
This helps explain why he is a high-pressure player with just 3.5 sacks last year.
He cannot defeat wall-off blocks. When an offensive lineman gets to his front shoulder before he can establish his own leverage, he’s done. And while he has access to an explosive first step that belies his 10-yard split speed, he can’t consistently find it. Green struggles to time up snaps and win with his burst on the regular. He has almost no margin if his get-off doesn’t beat the offensive line’s hands. The Pistol wide zone rep at N.C. State where he vacated his gap and gave up a near-touchdown, the slow-snap reps where he was looking at a false-start flag, and the late-flow reps on wide zone away from him. All of these are reps where he lost before contact, and there was no path to recovery.
Josiah Green’s Path To Playtime
There’s a reason why Green wasn’t picked in the draft. He’s not an every down player and he probably never will be. His run fitting is predicated on him penetrating gaps, but his inconsistency puts his impact far from Calijah Kancey. But his athleticism and pass rush arsenal put him into an archetype the Bucs don’t have much of.
The honest read is this: he is a sub-package interior pass rusher whose ceiling is “useful rotational piece on the right roster” and whose floor is “developmental practice squad body whose traits are worth keeping in the building.” The Bucs being high on him is understandable. They don’t have a qualified fill-in who can do the things Kancey can as a pass rusher. But Green might be able to provide that specific skillset in a limited fashion.
The Bucs interior defensive line carries six bodies most years. The top of that depth chart is well-defined. Vita Vea as the primary nose tackle. Kancey as the gap-penetrating 3-technique. A’Shawn Robinson provides a backup nose who can allow Vea to flex as need be. Elijah Roberts is a 5-technique who can moonlight as a 3t with some pass rush prowess due to his impressive hand fighting. But his athleticism is limited which makes quick wins a rarity for him.
DeMonte Capehart is the wild card to the two deep. Normally there isn’t much in the way of expectations for a fifth-round pick, but the Bucs think they can unlock something in him. And if they do, they may have a rare pass rushing nose tackle.
There’s five. That last spot will be a free-for-all between Green, Rakeem Nunez-Roches, Jayson Jones and Elijah Simmons. Green is completely different from the other three, who are all sub-package nose tackles. Green has the juice. He’s the only player on the depth chart who really profiles as a Kancey-light. And that gives him a unique opportunity to grab the 53rd spot on the depth chart or become a key practice squad elevation throughout the year.
The athleticism is real. The archetype and pass rushing traits are just as real. Josiah Green’s path to playtime might be real as well.