Graham Barton: “Good Thing I Wasn’t The Tackle”
December 4th, 2025
Rather block than catch.
Tristan Wirfs’ first career touchdown catch on Sunday — he never caught a TD before Sunday, not in high school, not at Iowa — was still the buzz in the Bucs’ locker room yesterday.
And Bucs center Graham Barton was sure happy he was not the guy catching the pass.
Wirfs may never have that easy of a catch. It was a misdirection play with the ball at the Cardinals-2. The Bucs went right and Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield looked right. The entire Arizona defense bit on the fake.
Wirfs, after initially blocking, slipped out and was wide-arse open at the goal line. Wirfs was so smooth and looked like he’s been catching passes all his life.
Looking at the replay, Barton thanked his lucky stars he wasn’t the receiver.
Remember, Barton in the first three weeks of the season was the Bucs’ starting left tackle as Wirfs rehabbed an offseason knee surgery. Barton said he’s fortunate the Bucs didn’t run that play when he was at left tackle.
“I’m glad I wasn’t a tackle because it probably would’ve clanked it off both my hands,” Barton joked. “I’m glad it went to Tristan [Wirfs], I’m good, I’ll just stay there in the middle.”
Barton is still surprised the Bucs even ran that play.
“I didn’t think it would ever get called,” Barton said. “We practiced it once or twice, so I’m like, ‘Yeah, right,’ and then it gets called and I’m like, ‘Alright, here we go.'”
What was more impressive to Joe than Wirfs making a catch all alone on the field was how Barton reacted. He bolted to Wirfs and (helped) lift the 320-pound Wirfs off his feet.
Now that is impressive.
“I just ran over and I was like, ‘Jump, I’ll lift you like a receiver,’ and it worked, and we got a great picture out of it.
“Ben Bredeson was like, ‘You planned… You knew what you were doing,’ I really didn’t, I just reacted that way and we had a good time with it, so glad it worked out.”
Joe’s only quibble is that it would have been so cool to run that Wirfs play against the slimy Saints.
.@AZCardinals @Buccaneers @TristanWirfs78 scores this opening TD of the game off of a tackle eligible play. I am 98% sure that Wirfs has to report as eligible….How do the Cardinals seem so unaware? Anyways …congrats to one of the great athletes on the offensive line in this… pic.twitter.com/qC60AOHkp7
— Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) December 3, 2025
December 4th, 2025 at 6:44 am
Wirfs needs to have “jump out of pool” celebration next time !
December 4th, 2025 at 7:36 am
Wirfs must have strained that oblique after the touchdown because Graham had him by the oblique’s lifting him in celebration. Wirfs is great but I’ll feel better when Barton is lifting Godwin after TDs. Or White. Or Irving. Or Tucker. Or Otten. Or Emeka. Or Tez. Or Mike! Or Shep. Or Durham. Or Culp. Or Kam. Or Miller. As fun as that play was for the OLine and the fans, it’s still rather aggravating that with the amount of playmakers we have that we have to resort to such a trick play unless under the right circumstances. Reserve those plays for the playoffs. Or, as Joe points out, it’d been way cooler against the Taints.
December 4th, 2025 at 8:19 am
So cool!
December 4th, 2025 at 8:46 am
imo, Grizz shouldve kept that play in his back pocket for the playoffs….
run Tucker or Bucky 4 straight times in that situation against that team…
another goof ball mistake by Grizz
GO BUCS!!!!
December 4th, 2025 at 9:01 am
STFU, boi… you don’t score there and there might not be a playoffs. Go second guess your mama, I think she made the wrong call on you.
December 4th, 2025 at 10:27 am
Tackle Eligible— Did he need to declare?
December 4th, 2025 at 10:34 am
At the time I was impressed that he caught it with his hands and not try to body catch it. He is just a superior athlete. He made it look real easy which most of us would have probably panicked and dropped.
December 4th, 2025 at 11:19 am
“Tackle Eligible— Did he need to declare?”
yes to the line judge
December 4th, 2025 at 12:00 pm
Brandon, 813bucboi is one of the good guys here, You must of woken up on the wrong side of the bed.. Get off my lawn kind of guy?
December 4th, 2025 at 1:44 pm
813 is a good guy . We have seen them run 4 Straight times from the 1yd line and did not score. Still no need for Brandon reply.
December 4th, 2025 at 3:23 pm
Barton has the thickest neck I’ve ever seen. Could you imagine if Barton was a villain in a Bond movie, and 007 had no weapons on him, and that little 5′ 9″ British cupcake had to try to choke him with his bare hands.
You mix Barton’s neck with the build of Tyji Armstrong, and my goodness, our floss challenged MI6 friend would never win another fight.
December 5th, 2025 at 12:13 am
Running four straight times is fine if you disguise it and run it four different ways including an RPO.
Running four straight times pretty much vanilla straight up the gut? After the second time, you should realize that you are not overpowering the matchup the way you expected to, and and maybe try something else.
A team selling out to stop an up the gut run can be wide open off tackle or to a bounce outside.
And, who are the Bucs’ tackles?
Keeping the pass to Wirth a secret for a playoff surprise sounds great.
But, now, any time Wirth lines up eligible in a tight end position on an unbalanced line, someone(s) has to account for Wirth. And, that creates more options.
Next time, maybe Baker continues his spin to the right for 270 degrees and rolls out toward the left sideline.
Does the edge defender just stand there guarding Wirth and leave Baker free to run past him to the left end of the goal line? That would be hilarious!
Does the edge defender close on Baker and let Baker do a jump pass over the edge defender as Mr. Pool Leap Wirth boxes out any closing DB and high points the jump pass? Is there a DB that is going to stop Wirth from falling back one yard into the end zone?
And, if someone is accounting for Wirth, what does that do for a zone run to the right where there are already two tackles and a guard with Otton in motion to the right?
Is a Run-Pass-Pitch option going to find no vulnerability as Baker and the RB move down the line to the right?
What if the RB steps right for the pitch back and then pivots to run to the left end of the goal line? With a pitch back the RB is allowed to pass, and the edge defender then must stay with Wirth or close on the RB and again leave Wirth open for a jump pass.
Teams now know that threat is real from that formation. And, addressing the threat is not free. So, how can the Bucs make them pay?
December 5th, 2025 at 5:46 am
TD catches
Wirfs – 1
TEs – 0
Don’t know, but that one bothers me. Love that Wirfs got the TD though.
Go Bucs!