Guards Caused Bucs’ Offense To Crater?
March 3rd, 2026
Graham Barton was caught between a rock and a hard place last season.
When speaking last week at the NFL beehive that was the Indiana Convention Center in downtown Indianapolis, Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht was asked at least a half-dozen times as he went through the media car wash, “What happened to the Bucs?”
The Bucs last season jumped out to a 6-2 record and then lost seven of their final nine games to miss the playoffs.
There is no doubt injuries hurt, especially on offense. Baker Mayfield never lined up behind the starting five on the offensive line that was so good the previous season. Not once.
Licht didn’t want to blame injuries. Joe doesn’t blame him. It sounds like weak sauce when you consider a team like San Francisco, which was also decimated by injuries, found a way to make the playoffs in maybe the league’s best division — and get to the divisional round while the Bucs tucked their tails between their legs and curled up in the corner like dogs.
(Harsh? Joe’s calling it like Joe sees it. The last time a Bucs coach oversaw his team — also with high expectations — laying down that badly, Raheem Morris got the boot.)
But Joe is trying to be fair. When an offensive line gets torn up like the Bucs’ did, and the team basically had to go dumpster diving for guards and use refuse from the county landfill to start at guard, no wonder the offense struggled.
By way of NextGen Stats, when the Bucs had to rely on Buffalo castoff Dan Feeney and (not that) Michael Jordan, the Bucs were starting two of the worst guards in the game. (The Bucs may have been better off signing the NASCAR owner Michael Jordan.)
While Jordan was pretty good in pass blocking, no guard charted by NextGen Stats was worse at run blocking. Feeney was just downright bad, no matter what the Bucs tried to accomplish.
Sean Payton is one of several NFL coaches who believes guard play is the key to a quarterback’s success. Yes, guard play, not tackles.
So one could argue that when Cody Mauch and Ben Bredeson were lost for the season with injuries (in the early part of the season, Bredeson played center in a reconfigured offensive line), Payton’s philosophy likely came into play.
The moral to this story? Have better backups.
Hat tip: @PullingGuardd.
March 3rd, 2026 at 12:22 am
Honestly, wouldn’t mind drafting a guard in the later rounds.. we suffered too many injuries on the offensive line. Depth doesn’t hurt.
March 3rd, 2026 at 1:01 am
Nothing to worry about. San Francisco’s success was just good luck, and the Bucs had astrological enemies no mortal could’ve ever overcome. Plus we kept the guy who is a proven top head coach.
March 3rd, 2026 at 1:16 am
Thats why i want Ioane….but if we sign a star guarf, that will help too….just get at least one somehow.
March 3rd, 2026 at 1:58 am
TWO things on the offense caused the cratering….
– Putrid backup/third-string guard play
– An offensive coordinator in wayyyyyyy over his head that couldn’t call in game plays that weren’t scripted…Route concepts were pedestrian as well
SIMPLE AS THAT 🤷🏻♂️
March 3rd, 2026 at 2:04 am
I think the guard play was huge Joe. It just got worse late in the year because by then the league knew and just as importantly Baker and the RBs knew.
We merely proved that depth is still important in the NFL.
I put most of the rest on Grizz. Many of the play calls were not at all the offense we were told we would have. Still not sure what that offense was. When stars come back and it gets worse?
NFL kick/punt coverage? Geez!
Go Bucs!
March 3rd, 2026 at 2:14 am
“while the Bucs tucked their tails between their legs and curled up in the corner like dogs.”
With one of THE ‘weakest’ schedules imaginable, and that you ever could’ve dreamed for down the final stretch of the season..
March 3rd, 2026 at 2:17 am
That’s why Baker got hurt and struggled in the long game. He was getting killed.
Grizzard didn’t have the experience to call plays that may have helped the situation either.
March 3rd, 2026 at 2:19 am
Baker still had PLENTY of opportunities to win those games against those teams. He just flat-out failed. Miserably. If HE “won” those first few games, then HE absolutely “LOST” those last ones. 💯
March 3rd, 2026 at 2:25 am
Baker missing Tired Legs on that 3rd down against the Falcons was just Taurus being mad at Sagittarius with Venus in retrograde. Nothing Baker could have done. It wasn’t his fault.
March 3rd, 2026 at 2:47 am
The elephant in the room here is Elijah Klein. This was his moment and he was nowhere. Surely they can’t keep him on the roster next season.
March 3rd, 2026 at 3:10 am
And Klein never got a chance!
So why is Kleik on the roster?
Haggard started over him too! Another guy we brought in from the streets.
March 3rd, 2026 at 3:46 am
TE Sadiq and OG OLAIVAVEGA IOANE are probably going to be the top 2 rated players on the Bucs draft board at 15. I believe they would rate OG IOANE ahead of Sadiq unless they lose Evans to free agency.
March 3rd, 2026 at 3:46 am
No matter who suits up for the Bucs in 2026, we fans know, Bowles can have any roster and get the most out of them. Performance on the field is only one small element of it. Winning in the NFL is hard, and in fact, overrated.
It’s about confusion without complexity. It’s about soft zone without pass rush. Bucs fans, chill. Bowles has this!
March 3rd, 2026 at 4:37 am
“Feeney was just downright bad” – agreed!
I thought Haggard looked decent early in the year before he got hurt and was out for a couple weeks. So they started Freeney at RG and then kept him there the whole rest of the season even though he sucked. Should have put Haggard back out there once he was healthy IMO. They were probably going for “continuity” by that point so I get it – but Feeney is old and sucks and isn’t going to improve – while Haggard looked serviceable in limited snaps – and might still have some upside to grow into with playing time…
Just a hindsight observation basically…. Would have been nice to know what we really have in Haggard moving forward if nothing else….
Here’s hoping the 2026 starting OLine can stay healthy. The offense will easily be back to top 10 status if they can…..
I see Mauch having a Pro Bowl type year as he has developed into a very good Guard and will be playing for his first big contract after this year….
March 3rd, 2026 at 4:54 am
Joe … ‘while the Bucs tucked their tails between their legs and curled up in the corner like dogs.’
That’s unfair Joe and you know it. Bucs were 6-2 at the BYE, with 4 of those games won in the last minute of play thanks largely to a healthy Baker Mayfield.
We lost the next 3 games handily after the BYE, losing to Patriots by 5 pts, to Bills by 12 pts & to the Rams by 27 pts (could’ve been 100 pts). And yet, we had a chance to beta the Pats in the 4th qtr, and were winning against the Bills at 1 point in the 4th qtr. And oh ya, Baker’s injuries started to mount. So we were 6-5 after 11 games.
Bucs struggled mightily in our last 6 games, going 2-4. Won the 2 games by a TOTAL of 5 pts, scoring an average of only 18 PPG and allowing an average of only 15.5 PPG in those 2 wins. Lost the other 4 games by a TOTAL of 11 pts, scoring an average of only 21.3 PPG and allowing an average of 24 PPG in those 4 losses.
Looking at those 6 games, each of them was won or lost by 4 pts or less … basically a FG … after 60 minutes of play. To say that the Bucs ‘curled up in a corner like dogs’ is grossly unfair Joe. They fought and actually came close in each of those games, but no cigar.
In the final analysis, forget EXCUSES, there were REASONS why they lost. Injuries are a reality of NFL play, and ADEQUATE DEPTH is the counter. Bucs lacked ADEQUATE DEPTH in almost every position group, and it bit us in the butt … OLine & backup QB especially. Having a very inexperienced OC certainly didn’t help, nor did all the turnovers in those last 4 losses (6 giveaways against only 2 takeaways).
March 3rd, 2026 at 5:06 am
Pickgrin … ‘Would have been nice to know what we really have in Haggard moving forward if nothing else’.
Agree 100% Pickgrin, and feel the same way about OG Elijah Klein. He was a 6th Rnd pick back in 2024, but only saw 1 offensive snap that 2024 season and only 87 snaps last season. Klein played 72 snaps (100%) against the Jets last season (Game 3 win), but only 15 snaps in 2 games the rest of the season. WHY?
If he was THAT BAD in that Jets game, then we need to move on from him this season. Matter of fact, we need to move on from virtually all our OLine DEPTH (except Chukwuma & maybe Haggard). Personally not interested in drafting latter round offensive Guards or Tackles. Quality veteran OLinemen are out there each & every season; just have to sign them early enough.
March 3rd, 2026 at 5:17 am
Yes, lack of guards killed us. Sean Payton is right. Look at our running and passing metrics once they were both gone. We were consistently much worse on offense. It’s hard to have great O-line backups but we definitely need better ones. Instead of drafting late look for proven starters replaced by rookies in free agency. Of course we can develop one from like the 4th or 5th round too. And no matter how you slice it, it’s horrible luck to lose both starting guards for the year. Our tackles were nicked up at different times too. We spent tons of draft capital and salary on our O-line- it was supposed to be one of our best position groups- only to see our starters get decimated by horrible injuries.
March 3rd, 2026 at 5:25 am
And once again, DR nails it. We still managed to be very competitive in almost all those games other than the Rams. That’s because the defense played a little better down the stretch. We can put it all together with a healthy team this year and more pass rushers. And like DR said- more depth always helps. The season is long and often a war of attrition. 2 seasons ago, we lost our whole starting secondary to injuries so we drafted a bunch more players. This past year we lost almost our whole offensive line and wr corps. We need Evans signed, and more depth on the line. Mauch looked like he was going to be a beast this past year. I expect that comes to fruition! Bredeson is no slouch either.
March 3rd, 2026 at 6:19 am
What happened? The coaches didn’t coach better, the players didn’t play better, the GM didn’t GM better, and the cheerleaders didn’t cheer better.
March 3rd, 2026 at 6:21 am
Adequate depth means keeping your solid durable football players like Hainsey. Letting him walk was a terrible decision. Was it Todd, Grizz, Jason or the owners decision? This year we are fixin to let White and Otton walk.Two more solid durable football players who by the way are both good at all aspects of their positions. If they leave we will once again roll the dice on adequate depth. Hainsey, White and Otton are proven knowns. Someone on the Bucs organization prefers let the knowns walk and gamble on unknowns. Need to hold on to solid durable football players in the NFL.
March 3rd, 2026 at 6:26 am
I’m not sure that the Bucs had even four of their starting five offensive linemen play more than two entire games. There were a few games where there was only two of the five.
By the end of the season, teams had enough film to clearly see the weakness at guard and exploit it.
March 3rd, 2026 at 6:38 am
Not only did we lose our starting guards, but we lost Sua Opeta in training camp with a season ending injury. He was the primary backup at both guard positions.
March 3rd, 2026 at 6:46 am
This entire organization inspires nobody. The management sucks. The coach sucks and 70% of the players suck. They’re fragile and weak minded. Look for that to continue in 2026.
March 3rd, 2026 at 7:00 am
San Fran didn’t have as many injuries to the same positions like we did.
March 3rd, 2026 at 7:01 am
BucU, then why be a fan?
March 3rd, 2026 at 7:04 am
Bucsarg Says:
“Adequate depth means keeping your solid durable football players like Hainsey. Letting him walk was a terrible decision…”
The trolls here wanted him gone.
March 3rd, 2026 at 7:20 am
teams didn’t need need to watch film to find the bucs weaknesses. the BIGGEST weakness was standing right across the field with arms folded and a blank look on his face.
March 3rd, 2026 at 7:44 am
“There is no doubt injuries hurt the Bucs, specifically on offense. Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield never lined up behind the starting five on the offensive line that was so good the previous season. Not once.”
Part of the problem in 2025 for sure, but not all of the problem. We went on a 4 games skid in 2024, with the OL at full health and a lot of how we looked in those games, we looked the exact same way in our last 11 games offensively in 2025.
Feels like some want to make guard play the sole reason for our offensive woes, and I’m not inclined to look at our issues from that narrow a perspective. It’s too easy and doesn’t tell the entire story.
March 3rd, 2026 at 7:45 am
This is why I believe last year was a lost season for Barton. Between having to fill in at tackle for a few games and then playing between two bad guards
March 3rd, 2026 at 7:54 am
You can blame the guards if you want, but that fish stank from the head down. We couldn’t do anything right after the bye. Couldn’t block. Couldn’t tackle. Special teams???
March 3rd, 2026 at 7:54 am
You can find one of the best guards in the draft in the 2nd round.
Trade back twice. Even out of the 1st round completely.
We need 2nd and 3rd round picks.
Why?
Because elite middle linebackers can be found in the 2nd and 3rd round.
And grab an elite guard/center to backup Brederson/Mauch/Barton.
Depth wins Super Bowls.
March 3rd, 2026 at 8:07 am
How do we get Jalen Rivers on the team?
March 3rd, 2026 at 8:15 am
If Barton struggles this year, move him to guard, put Bredeson at center. Barton reminds me of Marpet. We toyed with him at different spots only to realize he’s best at guard. He was solid for us there. Need to find a true center this offseason that has an edge/attitude.
March 3rd, 2026 at 8:15 am
There seems to be an unwritten rule in the NFL–Jason/Todd COULD have said we started losing games because our offensive production dropped because our backup guards SUCKED, but that simply isn’t done. Even with the poor D, averaging 25 or so after the bye would have won us 11 games
March 3rd, 2026 at 8:45 am
Hainsey wanted to play which is totally understandable. Bucs didn’t have a starting spot for him so there was never a chance that he was going to stay as a backup…. for those whining that Bowles or Licht or whomever “let him walk”….
March 3rd, 2026 at 8:45 am
been saying this since the end of the year!!!
draft OG round 1
flip Barton to LG
flip Bredenson to C
Mauch can sit on the bench until he gets 100 % healthy…rather have him as a back up than haggard, MJ or Klein…plus, he’ll be an FA after the season anyway…
GO BUCS!!!!
March 3rd, 2026 at 9:21 am
WBL. You are right. It doesn’t tell the whole story. We scored 3 going into the halftime locker room at Detroit and scored a touchdown coming out of the locker room. We inexplicably went for 2, misfired, and instead of 14-10 with the second half in front of us and Momentum, it’s 14-9, and we’ve lost momentum. Of course Detroit went right down and scored. Coaching malpractice. Now we are 6-2. Patriots. Zero turnovers. 3 touchdown passes. 4 breakaway TDS for Patriots, over 60 yards each, hadn’t happened in NFL in 25 years. We lose 28-23. 6-3. Next up, Bills. Josh Allen six TDS. SIX! Kickoff team a JOKE! 44-32. 6-4. Rams. They scored tds on every drive in the first half and could have done the same the entire game. Defense was absolutely the worst defense I’ve ever seen in the league. In my whole life. Those 3 games. 6-5. That had Lavonte and Todd and Baker scolding the whole team and I’m positive Baker knew we sucked so bad that we’d never beat anyone in the playoffs. In those last 6 games I remember Mike coming back and screaming 3rd and 28. In another epic defensive meltdown that had us throwing the ball in the 4th quarter. I remember a rainstorm loss to Tyler Shough and the Saints where the rookie outran our linebackers for 2 touchdowns. To tell the whole story WBL, let’s first get off blaming Baker Mayfield for everything. Because he was the only player on our team that fought like a dog, with a half a$$ Oline and receiver corps, and a defense and special teams that straight up sucked. I’m pretty sure I remember the season. It wasn’t that long ago.
March 3rd, 2026 at 9:31 am
Trade a Zion to the Raiders for Jackson Powers Johnson
JPJ at Center
Barton To Guard
Bredensen backup at G & C
March 3rd, 2026 at 9:37 am
Yes!
March 3rd, 2026 at 10:06 am
“WBL. You are right. It doesn’t tell the whole story. We scored 3 going into the halftime locker room at Detroit and scored a touchdown coming out of the locker room. We inexplicably went for 2, misfired, and instead of 14-10 with the second half in front of us and Momentum, it’s 14-9, and we’ve lost momentum. Of course Detroit went right down and scored. Coaching malpractice.”
I liked how you skipped over the Saints game, which was the last game before the bye.
Also, I’ve never blamed Mayfield for everything that’s what you numbskulls who feel like Baker is infallible say when I(or anybody else) come out and point out his crappy play. Again from Detroit to the season, 349 passe attempted and only 54% of those were completed, then
I will however point out how you and other commenters here turn into Rafeal Nadal and Pete Sampras in terms of deflecting any type of accountability just like you passively did in effort to tell me to cut it out. You went from Detroit to New England like the first NOLA matchup wasn’t 1 of our last 3 wins of the.
Furthermore Kenton, you aren’t my personal censor, unless Joe tells me it’s out of line I’m going to keep on pointing out when Baker plays like crap, because as long as he’s playing football it’s going to happen as that’s his modus operandi as a pro QB coming up on a decade of playing in the NFL.
March 3rd, 2026 at 10:09 am
Carberry stayed relatively unscathed in the Joe’s and readers minds this offseason while others lost their jobs.
While the team moved on from their OC and QB coach. Carberry stayed.
It clearly is easier to coach when you have better talent — but the best coaches get it done when the talent drops.
March 3rd, 2026 at 10:35 am
Kenton,
Well said. That’s EXACTLY what happened and Worse. It was the most deflated of a team that I’ve EVER witnessed with my own eyes. And of course, it has to be mine and your, Buccaneers…
The Facts ARE, we likely have the Very Worst head coach in the Entirety of ALL of professional football. It’s literally a clown show.
And you people like blustering bonzai actually think that All of us that HAVE BEEN SCREAMING to GET RID OF this Albatross Bowles from around Our Necks FOR YEARS WANTED THIS????? Huh? Is THAT your genius conclusion???
We were Begging and Screaming to “PLEASE”, PLEASE GET RID OF THIS GUY BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE! FOR YEARS AS WE TUMBLED FURTHER AND FURTHER AWAY FROM BEING A WINNING ORGANIZATION. WE WERE FIGHTING HARD SO THAT “YOU AND I” COULD HOLD OUR HEADS HIGH FOR “MORE THAN A FLEETING MOMENT. WE ARE ALL PSSD BECAUSE ONCE AGAIN “THAT’S” ALL WE GOT. AND LOOK AT US NOW…. I CASE YOU MISSED IT… WE ARE BACK IN THE DEN OF DEPRESSION! WHY? BECAUSE SOME OF YOU FOOLS WITH YOUR BLIND SUPPORT OF AN “OBVIOUS FAILURE” KEPT TELLING THE OWNERWHIP THAT BOWLES THE FAILURE DC WAS A GREAT HEAD COACH. AND AS FAR AS I’M CONCERNED, IT’S YOU CLOWNS THAT GOT US BACK INTO THE DEN OF THE BIGGEST JOKES IN ALL OF FOOTBALL, AGAIN! This IS ON the fans of the WORST TEAM IN ALL OF SPORTS!
DON’T YOU DARE LECTURE ANYBODY ON ANYTHING THAT CONCERNS “WINNING”!!!
March 3rd, 2026 at 10:47 am
Mauch is one of our best players. He’ll be back and just fine.
March 3rd, 2026 at 12:45 pm
Bulls(p)it! They choked like dogs down the stretch — and YOU know it — losing seven of nine games. Quit making excuses. Good teams find a way to beat the lousy Saints, Panthers or Falcons.
March 3rd, 2026 at 12:49 pm
Exactly. People screamed for Hainsey’s head — Joe wrote many times two years ago Hainsey was not the problem.
Funny how Hainsey goes to Jacksonville and it is the Jags who go to the playoffs, not the Bucs. Now people rip Licht for not overpaying a backup?
Hainsey was basically an extra coach.
March 3rd, 2026 at 12:52 pm
“Bulls(p)it! They choked like dogs down the stretch — and YOU know it — losing seven of nine games. Quit making excuses. Good teams find a way to beat the lousy Saints, Panthers or Falcons.”
**3-8 in our last 11 games, guys gotta stop pretending like we looked good the last 2 games before the bye. We did not, we were terrible.
March 3rd, 2026 at 1:00 pm
Oh, he got a chance. He also got lit up with that chance.
There’s a reason why the Bucs stuck with Feeney.
March 3rd, 2026 at 1:01 pm
We drafted a Guatemala
Rd 2 years ago and he was unavailable to contribute.
We need to replace him and at least one other.
March 3rd, 2026 at 3:41 pm
The offense sputtered for a lot of reasons. You can’t plan for freak injuries, other than to have solid depth, so look at that. Outside of this, the team says they fought down the stretch, but I don’t believe the coaches put them in a position to succeed. The play calling on both sides of the ball was questionable. The OC is gone, but the HC playing DC remains. We’ll see how all this plays out. Vegas still has the Bucs odds at +4000 to +5000 to win the SB next season. Not good!
March 4th, 2026 at 7:11 am
Joe, they lost 7 of 9 games because they lost their starting guards! All the metrics bear that out. They lost the ability to step into a pass or stop a single DT from penetrating the backfield. There were DT’s even with Mayfield on almost EVERY pass, and I had never seen anything close to that in 2024. That’s why we used so many quick plays and outside runs. But, teams pick that tendency up really quickly and then your offense is mired in quicksand. Once the defense realized the offense was helpless, they slowly and steadily gave more and more ground. They were on the field way too much too. There’s a combination of things that happen once your offense stops functioning. Bowles took the players out that were disheartened on the defense and that’s why they played ok (not great) down the stretch at least keeping us in games. That’s the best they could do in the circumstances and there is a shortage of talent on the defense front 7 that must be addressed.