Bucs OC defends center.

Joe gets this question from time to time from readers and Bucs fans offline.

“Why don’t you ask [pick the name of a Bucs big-shot] why they don’t [fill in the blank on a touchy subject]?”

There’s a reason, Joe often tells these fans. Press conferences are corporate settings — and the NFL is a large, multi-billion-dollar corporation — and come with a certain etiquette to follow. Deviate from that and you’re quite likely to get shot down by a team spokesman or the press conference could come to an immediate halt.

So, there’s a certain way to ask questions and a way that isn’t kosher. You learn by experience, sort of like learning how to drive a stick.

Yesterday, Joe asked Bucs offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard a quickly and pretty quickly Joe regretted the word choice.

Bucs center Graham Barton has not really taken a step forward in his second season. The 2024 first-round pick is likely hampered by having two backup guards on either side of him due to injuries. There’s not a lot Barton can do about that.

Still, Barton is getting bull-rushed more than he did as a rookie. He’s had his hands full.

So yesterday, Grizzard was getting questions about Barton and Joe asked Grizzard if Barton starting the season at left tackle in place of then-injured Tristan Wirfs and then getting tossed back to center after the first month resulted in Barton being “messed up.”

What Joe should have asked Grizzard is if starting the season at left tackle, then flipping Barton back to center after a month, “may have stunted his growth?” That would have been better phrasing.

Joe didn’t think Grizzard took too kindly to the words “messed up.” Can’t blame him.

Regardless, Grizzard responded to whether flipping positions hindered Barton’s play at center. (Remember, Barton was a left tackle at Duke.)

“I wouldn’t say it messed him up,” Grizzard said. “I would say it was definitely a challenge.

“The way that you’re setting on a defensive end versus setting on a shade is completely different. It goes from being the one making the calls on who the mike is, how we’re going to fix the protection, to being at the mercy of that time of ‘Breds’ [Ben Bredeson] who’s in control of that, Baker [Mayfield] was in control of that.

“With [Barton], he was able to do that pretty flawlessly; to be able to do that at the NFL level I think is very impressive.”

Barton may have done that flawlessly but Joe guesses if you gave Grizzard truth serum, he’d confess it may have been better for Barton’s growth to just let him stay at center.

That’s a little rear-view mirror logic, as the Bucs pretty much had to do what they did due to all of the injuries to the offensive line.

Grizzard, in no uncertain terms, believes Barton has made progress this season.

“Definitely,” Grizzard said. “For one, being able to play tackle and then moving back into center, which seems like a year ago at this point.

“His ability to do that and then come back to center and take off where he was in the offseason with his progression on the communication with those guys. …

“He’s clearly a leader of this team. His progression, his arrow is up, I think he’s done a hell of a job so far.”

Barton did a solid job when he played left tackle. He wasn’t great; he won’t ever replace Wirfs. Barton wasn’t a turnstile either.

Joe has to believe one reason why the run game hasn’t been as effective as last year is that the interior blocking hasn’t been what it was last year, either.