Tristan Wirfs: Consistency Is “Huge” For Offensive Linemen
October 25th, 2023
Left tackle Tristan Wirfs.
Per a former NFL player personnel director, the best offensive lines come December are the ones that play together the most through the season.
Pat Kirwan of SiriusXM NFL Radio, the former Jets personnel chief and linebackers coach, once spoke glowingly about how vital it is for the growth of an offensive line if all five starters can stay on the field together.
Joe brought this up after seeing a stat from advanced stats outfit TruMedia that showed the Bucs’ starting offensive line played the highest percentage of snaps this season. All five starters haven’t missed a snap.
That sparked Joe’s memory of Kirwan’s take.
So yesterday, Joe asked All-Pro tackle Tristan Wirfs about this. Wirfs had no idea the Bucs had the most snaps together in the NFL through Week 7.
Joe asked Wirfs what this consistency meant to him.
“That’s huge, yeah,” Wirfs said. “I said that in training camp, getting as many reps as we can next to the guy you are playing with.
“We had: Luke’s [Goedeke] new, Cody [Mauch] is new, [Robert] Hainsey is there. Matt [Feiler] is new. I’m new at left tackle.
“So coming in, we wanted to do as much as we could together as a unit.”
Unfortunately, that consistency is likely to be erased tomorrow night. Feiler suffered a knee injury Sunday and didn’t practice yesterday. Even Wirfs hinted Feiler may not be good to go Thursday against the Bills.
The whispers Joe heard around One Buc Palace don’t sound promising for Feiler.
October 25th, 2023 at 7:16 am
Feiler has been awful. So has Mauch and Hainsey. Put Leverett at LG and Stinnie at RG, trade for a center.
October 25th, 2023 at 8:04 am
Running games fixed chase is back
October 25th, 2023 at 8:25 am
Kirwan aint wrong but you still gotta have the hosses regardless.
Go Bucs!
October 25th, 2023 at 8:39 am
The only Buc that will be running tomorrow night is Baker. Bucs just need to air it out and swing for the fences. This O line is made up of soft slow players that don’t know how to play with an attitude. I don’t think losing Feiler is that big of a deal. I agree with Jeebs, Leverett and Stinne and get Mauch out of there. He is over matched and a liability on the field.
October 25th, 2023 at 9:34 am
We have two bad starting guards.
But our backups are not even worse than them!
We have 4 backup quality NFL guards.
But we don’t have any good NFL guards.
All 4 are decent. But none of them are good.
And our center is one of the 5 worst in the NFL.
Therefore, we have had the worst NFL rushing attack for 2 years in a row.
I hope we draft a guard who has actually played guard before!
Benenoch. RT turned into a guard.
Goedeke RT turned into a guard (last year)
Cappa. LT turned into a guard.
Hainsey RT turned into a center.
Marpet LT turned into a guard. (Wasted 1 year as a center)
Mauch LT turned into a guard.
I trust Licht. I like Licht.
But I hope we either sign the best guard free agent in the NFL next year.
Or I hope we draft a badass center/guard in the 1st round next year.
Hainsey can become a backup and we can let Feiler sign elsewhere.
October 25th, 2023 at 11:35 am
There was a lot of hope coming into the season. SpongeBob gone. Baker had energy. Evans and Godwin back. Jensen back.
But then Jensen was not back. The RBs are the worst in the league. Baker can’t seem to hit guys when he needs to. The penalties on the OL have been drive killers.
The Defense has loafers. They lose focus.
Other teams are stronger, push them around.
No one leads.
It will take 6 new starters on Offense to make a difference. RB. TE. QB. LG. RG. C.
It will take 5 new starters on Defense. S. CB. CB. LB. Edge.
The promising rookies will need to come on year 2 and make impact.
Most importantly, a new HC.
October 25th, 2023 at 11:48 am
Dance with who you brought to the party and play to your strengths.
Pass blocking is great. Shuffling will not improve the run blocking. It will only worsen pass blocking. Throw the ball to set up the run.
October 25th, 2023 at 12:07 pm
Feiler, Mauch, Neal, R.White, off the top of my head were all gifted starting jobs. None of them earned it in the dirt. We didn’t even see White play in the preseason. He was being treated like the guy at RB, even tho he never earned it. Is Neal better then Delaney? Not from what I’ve seen, but like White he was to good to play any preseason. The QB competition was a farce too. Players were given jobs way before training camp began. Now it shows. Licht went out to fix the line drafting Mauch, and bringing in Feiler. He’s not going to let Bowles play Stinnie, and Leverett even if they are better. It would make his FA look bad yet again, Gage, J. Jones, so many bad moves.
October 25th, 2023 at 12:18 pm
teacherman777, Aaron Stinnie was the backup that started 5 games and our Superbowl IMO I think he is a starting caliber right guard his run blocking is quite good and his pass blocking is even better. I think he should have been starting at right guard all along letting Mauch sit and learn while gaining more strength and power in the weight room.
October 25th, 2023 at 3:33 pm
Amen to that. Proudbucsfan. My Momma was stunned when they put Mauch there. Ugh.
October 30th, 2023 at 8:44 pm
Imagine having an actually explosive running back to play with, an OL which can get off the ball and pull, and an offense that has a cadence that the defense doesn’t know…?!
It’d be crazy
But yeah let’s keep ignoring Sean Tucker and dressing Vaughn 3 years after we knew he was a plodder as all scouts had concuded pre-draft, and starting Rashaad.
Rashaad’s a good receiving No. 2 somewhere tho, ngl.