“It’s A Bad Formula”
July 1st, 2025
A noted Bucs supporter and friend of Todd Bowles thinks the Tampa Bay head coach and Buccaneers Ring of Honor general manager Jason Licht are on the cusp of an avoidable nightmare.
Former Jets linebackers coach and personnel chief Pat Kirwan is the big-cheese host on SiriusXM NFL Radio. He’s at every national NFL event and grinds his way through endless film study of prospects and players.
This week, Kirwan and co-host Jim Miller, the retired NFL quarterback, are wrapping up their extensive team-by-team offensive line breakdowns and grades.
Kirwan loves and hates what he sees in Tampa. “It’s a bad formula,” he said.
The problem for Kirwan is he gives the Bucs a “zero” grade for their backups.
He pointed to veteran swing tackle Charlie Heck, a newcomer this offseason, and noted how Heck only had 87 snaps last season for the 49ers’ offense and hasn’t played much in years. As for the rest of the depth, Kirwan sees them as close to worthless.
“I know they’re one injury away from a disaster,” Kirwan said before going into grumpy-old-man mode. “… I’ve been in the league long enough to go, ‘Oh, yeah, it’ll be great again. Nobody’s going to get hurt.'”
Kirwan went on to plead with the Bucs to sign an “old, lunch pail” offensive lineman. Kirwan thinks an addition like that could give the Bucs the best offensive line in the NFL.
As for the Bucs’ starters, Kirwan said they grade well enough for him to make the Bucs a top-5 NFL offensive line, but he cannot hand out that ranking to the team because of the backup situation.
Joe thinks Kirwan is off base.
Heck is bigger and very likely better than departed backup tackle Justin Skule, who had less experience than Heck entering the 2024 season. Skule had a brutal first start last season in place of right tackle Luke Goedeke, but he tightened his game up rather quickly.
Kirwan referred to departed center Robert Hainsey as “Hennessey,” so, well, Joe won’t go there. Hainsey certainly was a top-shelf backup and there’s no evidence that the Bucs have one to replace him.
It’s worth noting the Bucs have plenty of time if they want to add quality depth to their offensive line.
Fans might remember 2015. The Bucs pulled an old starting right tackle off the street in August (Gosder Cherilus) and a starting veteran center (Joe Hawley) in September. And the 2015 run game ranked second in the NFL in yards per carry while Jameis Winston found his way to the Pro Bowl as a rookie.
July 1st, 2025 at 1:09 pm
Yeah, I listened to that breakdown of O-lines in the NFC South yesterday. Kirwan had the Bucs clearly in the top 5 in the NFL if they had any backups with experience. He gave the starting line-up a 17, the highest score possible. The important thing, is that the Bucs ranked higher than any of the other teams in the division.
July 1st, 2025 at 1:23 pm
Hawley was a great get. Seems like a cool dude. Has a YouTube channel where he travels the country with his dog in a van.
July 1st, 2025 at 1:24 pm
Worst comes to worst, you could stick Watson in there and just tell him to hold his ground. Not to many DL could go through him, and they’d probably take at least a couple seconds to get around him.
July 1st, 2025 at 1:29 pm
Yes, have to agree on the back up situation. Say what you want about Skule; yes he had a poor first game or two. However, after that he played well. We don’t know that about the new guy or anyone else backing up the line. So yes an incredible o line without quality backups spells a great recipe for disaster. Look at the secondary last year!! yes exactly!!!. The good thing, yes a good amount of time to fix the back up situation. Heck what do we know about Trask? not anything really and yes the way Baker plays, it is only a matter of time until he is injured. Hopefully, not enough to miss much, but chances, extremely high.
July 1st, 2025 at 1:30 pm
I think last year’s Guard Elijah Klein will blossom. Also last year before his season ending injury, Sua Opeta was winning the competition at starting left guard from Ben Bredeson.
I think the Bucs backups will be fine. Very few teams has top notch players as backups.
July 1st, 2025 at 1:33 pm
I didn’t remember the additions of Cherilus and Hawley as being post such late additions, but now that you mention it … Hey it was 10 years ago and those guys weren’t exactly household names. Cherilus was pretty huge if I remember right. Hawley I remember less. Heck is even taller than Cherilus. A tad lighter. PFF rates him as better with pass blocking. The overall opinion of him seems to be meh. What do you expect for $1.6 mil? Maybe somebody cuts someone we like better. If not he will probably be at least as good as Skule. Of course we hope we never use a backup unless he is our own draft pick or free agent. It seems to me we sign end of season cuts a lot less often lately.
July 1st, 2025 at 1:47 pm
licht normally signs OL after the preseason…
i was hoping for 1 OL in the draft but i trust bowles and licht
GO BUCS!!!!
July 1st, 2025 at 1:49 pm
Joe actually brought this up during mini camp when he said Trask was continually running for his life behind the backup offensive line.
July 1st, 2025 at 1:53 pm
Kirwan can say the same thing for any other oline in the league.
July 1st, 2025 at 1:56 pm
Cherilus was signed after Demar Dotson got hurt.
July 1st, 2025 at 1:57 pm
What a time to be a Bucs fan when the major concern is whether they have a suitable backup swing player on the OL.
There are so few holes on this team. What they need is good conditioning and good fortune on the injury front.
Last year, Hall and Opeta were lost before the season started. Then Evans and Godwin. Goedeke. Winfield. All injured.
This team is due for a break. The stars are aligned.
July 1st, 2025 at 2:09 pm
Really good offensive linemen are called STARTERS. The backups can afford to just be somewhat good or average.
July 1st, 2025 at 2:10 pm
never count on “luck”
July 1st, 2025 at 2:39 pm
I’m just glad we have a solid starting lineup up front. Better than solid actually – quite good. Top 5 in the league. That wasn’t the case just 2 years ago…..
I’m quite sure this is actually the best OLine the Buccaneers have ever had in 50 years…
Opeta and Klien for inside and Heck as the swing tackle is probably as good or better than many teams have for primary backups.
Some/many teams are having to insert 1 or 2 or more backup level talents into a starting position just to cobble together some semblance of a legitimate starting Offensive Line…. a position the Bucs have found themselves in almost every year since the inception of the team…..
Jason Licht is the difference maker here…. He built up a good OLine (mostly through the draft) just in time for the arrival of Tom Brady – and when that fell apart due to aging out? or was it loss of want to?(Smith), free agency (Cappa), early retirement (Marpet) and career ending injury (Jensen) – he proceeded to replace 3 of those 4 spots with high draft picks who are all very good or better players (Goedeke, Mauch and Barton) and found 26 y.o. Bredeson as a decent starting talent at LG for cheap in free agency…..
Wirfs at LT is a future HOFer and the rest of the line is solid to good or better. And all these players are still youngish and still improving their game – both individually and as a unit……
Bucs fans are not at all used to seeing high end offensive output on Sundays. But it all starts up front and this 2025 Bucs offense seems loaded with talent in a way that we’ve never seen before…. Even when Brady was here slinging it all over the field to Evans and Godwin and Gronk and AB – we didn’t have a very good nor consistent run game.
Now we’ve got:
Top 5 OLIne
Top 10 QB
Top 5 WRs
Top 5 RBs
Top 15 TEs
Get ready for some offensive fireworks this year folks!
July 1st, 2025 at 3:03 pm
I’ve been asking for an improved Swing Tackle for years now. So, yeah.
July 1st, 2025 at 4:19 pm
Dont forget, udfa Jake Majors, C for Texas that we landed. I figured he would go in the 7th, but lucky us, and i was stoked. He has short arms but held up pretty well against Kenneth Grant. He could be our new bu Center.
July 1st, 2025 at 5:16 pm
It’s obvious he forgot about Opeta. He was a part time starter with the Eagles and leading the battle here before injury. Beeson can also play center. Sounds pretty well rounded to me.
July 1st, 2025 at 6:08 pm
Love Kirwan all you want but if the grade has backups factored in, then it is not a grade but a whine.
July 1st, 2025 at 6:27 pm
Heck would have to be a hell of a scrub to be worse than Sucke, and the Bucs got by with him having to start.
But with that said, yeah, I’m very concerned about the lack of depth on the line. When Hainsey was here, you could literally start him at center and guard and really not worry about it – and considering he was a college tackle, I bet he could step in there as well and be OK. But the current backups don’t inspire a lot of confidence.
July 1st, 2025 at 6:49 pm
Did Pat forget Sua’s on the team?
July 1st, 2025 at 7:53 pm
Kirwan usually has good takes but he’s off on this one. San Francisco usually has very good OL’s, so Heck is probably decent. Licht also picked up Skule from the 49ers – coincidence or did John Lynch give Licht some intel on these guys?
July 1st, 2025 at 8:14 pm
“Joe thinks Kirwan is off base.”
So do I. Kirwan is not accounting for coaching at all…and the Bucs are known for getting backup OL up to snuff pretty quickly.
July 1st, 2025 at 9:28 pm
Licht will definitely do some shopping come roster cuts. This has been a pretty consistent strength of his. We’ve had some good play from backups in the past, minus the Skule disaster.