{"id":218191,"date":"2026-04-04T01:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T01:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/218191\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T01:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T01:42:08","slug":"rakeem-nunez-roches-leaves-giants-for-tampa-bay-bucs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/218191\/","title":{"rendered":"Rakeem Nunez-Roches Leaves Giants for Tampa Bay Bucs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6m\">Defensive lineman Rakeem \u201cNacho\u201d Nunez-Roches is going back to the team with whom he reached the top of the mountain.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6p\">Nunez-Roches signed with the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/giants\/onsi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> New York Giants<\/a> three years ago as an unrestricted free agent. He provided depth on the Big Blue defensive line. He has now<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MikeGarafolo\/status\/2040215578888024277?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\"> signed a one-year deal<\/a> with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he won Super Bowl LV in 2021.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6s\">Nunez-Roches was originally a sixth-round draft pick by the Kansas City Chiefs in 2015 out of Southern Mississippi. He spent three seasons with the Chiefs before moving over to the Bucs in 2018, a team with whom he spent five seasons.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6v\">In three seasons with the Giants, \u201cNacho\u201d appeared in 40 games with 24 starts, recording 5.5 sacks, 101 tackles, six tackles for loss, and 11 quarterback hits. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6y\">He had his \u201cbest\u201d season with the Giants in 2024, appearing in 15 games with 15 starts and recording career highs in tackles (52) and quarterback hits (6).<\/p>\n<p>Nacho had a rough final season with the NY Giants <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/01knb01nma47ks9vb095.jpg\" alt=\"Former New York Giants defensive tackle Rakeem Nunez-Roches   \" title=\"Former New York Giants defensive tackle Rakeem Nunez-Roches   \" width=\"6033\" height=\"4022\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"7b\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Former New York Giants defensive tackle Rakeem Nunez-Roches   | Eric Hartline-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7f\">Last season, in what was an injury-filled campaign that limited him to just nine games with five starts before landing on injured reserve toward the end of the season with an ankle injury, Nunez-Roches set a new career high in sacks with 3.0.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7i\">Hailed as a run-stopper, Nunez-Roches, in three seasons with Big Blue, never recorded a PFF run-stopping grade <a href=\"https:\/\/premium.pff.com\/nfl\/players\/2025\/REGPO\/rakeem-nunez-roches\/9650\/defense\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">above 50.2<\/a>, Nunez-Roches recording 41 STOPS in 653 run defense snaps.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7l\">The Giants, who are not believed to have made any overtures to retain Nunez-Roches, are in the process of remaking their defensive line.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7s\">The unit will be anchored by a (hopefully) healthy Dexter Lawrence II, with Roy Robertson-Harris, Darius Alexander, Chauncy Golston, and Elijah Chatman also among those on the unit.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7v\">The Giants, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/giants\/onsi\/news\/ny-giants-draft-pick-joins-washington-commanders-01kn4q0yd3yh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">did not retain DJ Davidson<\/a>, a 2022 fifth-round draft pick who signed with Washington, are also believed to be planning to add young talent to the unit, which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/giants\/onsi\/news\/giants-sign-sam-roberts-for-defensive-line-depth-01kmdxe2wbx0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">recently signed veteran defensive lineman Sam Roberts<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7y\">New York also recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/giants\/onsi\/giants-host-shelby-harris-for-visit-01kmgkwb7ebg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">checked in on veteran defensive lineman Shelby Harris<\/a>. If Harris is in the plans, the Giants will likely wait until after the draft to sign him, when veteran additions no longer count toward the NFL\u2019s comp pick formula for next year.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-15\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"81\">Sign up for our<a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/giants\/onsi\/newsletter\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> free newsletter<\/a> and follow us on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/nygiantsmaven\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Facebook<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Patricia_Traina\" rel=\"nofollow\"> X<\/a> for the latest news, and<a href=\"https:\/\/form.jotform.com\/92567758130161\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> send your mailbag questions<\/a> to us.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defensive lineman Rakeem \u201cNacho\u201d Nunez-Roches is going back to the team with whom he reached the top of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-218191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}