Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Three things to know about Vita Vea

2. He Dominated the 2018 NFL Draft Combine

The first thing that sticks out about Vita Vea is clearly his size. The Washington product is 6-foot-4, 347 pounds. He is a massive body to have in the middle of the Buccaneer defensive line. But he has a crazy combination of speed and strength, as evidenced by his performance at the NFL Combine last month. With his size, seeing him run the 40-yard dash as quickly as he did was eye-popping:

Yes, the 347-pound Vea ran 40 yards in 5.1 seconds. That is unreal. But that wasn’t it for the big man. As fast as he is, he is just as strong. On the bench press, he put up 41 reps at 225 pounds. The 41 reps was the second-highest mark, one behind the lead. Vea opened a lot of eyes at the combine by showing off his quickness and power. But before that week in Indianapolis, he showed plenty of promise on fall Saturdays in Washington.

Vea totaled 43 tackles (30 solo), five and a half tackles for loss, three and a half sacks and four passes defended in 2017. He finished his Washington career with 99 tackles (65 solo), fifteen tackles for loss and nine and a half sacks in three seasons. The numbers don’t necessarily jump out at you, but his film certainly does. There is still some untapped potential in Vea, which should definitely come out when he is paired with a veteran stud like Gerald McCoy.