BSPN: Even With Tristan Wirfs On The Shelf, Don’t Worry About The Offensive Line
August 15th, 2025
Big prediction.
Don’t worry, folks. The Bucs’ offensive line will be fine. Relax.
That’s the message from Seth Walder of BSPN. Walder, a man who never met a number he didn’t like, used a BSPN stat that is supposed to offer intel on how a line performs run blocking and pass blocking.
No one is dumb enough to suggest the Bucs won’t be hurt by losing the best pass-blocking left tackle in the game, Tristan Wirfs, who might the first three weeks of this season. But Walder said his numbers suggest the Bucs will still be dominant at pass blocking.
The Buccaneers will rank first in pass block win rate. They already have a strong offensive line, and they’re a relatively young group, too.
When left guard Ben Bredeson is the old man of the line at 27, that’s a young line.
*Luke Goedeke is in a contract year. So the Bucs’ right tackle, maybe the best right tackle in the league, will be at his best.
* Cody Mauch looks like a mauler at right guard.
* Joe has heard raving reviews of Graham Barton. Specifically, Joe was told the way Barton is picking up blitzes is night and day better than what he did last year.
* Bredeson is not liked by fans. Still, he starts on one of the best lines in the league. How bad can he be?
* Wirfs, if he can stay healthy, looks to be building a Hall of Fame career.
So yeah, Joe can see the Bucs having a dominant pass blocking line, provided Wirfs can return to his All-Pro self.
August 15th, 2025 at 7:08 am
Too bad we don’t know how Heck did against the Steelers? Also, I bet Goedeke vs Watt was interesting to watch?
August 15th, 2025 at 7:21 am
Tampa fans are questionable at best. Most of them wanted to give up on Cody Mauch. Now he’s great.
They even wanted to give up on Mike Evans after his second year.
Believe it or not, there were fans who wanted to give up on Ronde Barber in his third year too.
Tampa fans (mostly) have no understanding of player development.
August 15th, 2025 at 7:59 am
Fans wanted to give up on Goedeke also
August 15th, 2025 at 8:06 am
Hah. And I wanted to give up on Licht after the Hargreaves/Aguayo fiasco of a draft. Glad that the org doesn’t listen to fans.
August 15th, 2025 at 8:07 am
I dont recall fans giving up on Evans after his second 1000 yd season.
August 15th, 2025 at 8:17 am
Yea – I’m relaxed. Give Charlie heck some help when certain plays calls make it necessary and the offense will be fine for a few games.
August 15th, 2025 at 8:23 am
always liked Luke, just thought he was playing out of position his first year and that was the case…
i still feel the same way about Cody Mauch…i think he’s a better tackle than guard…i remember him being pretty dominate at the senior bowl at tackle…
we wont be able to pay luke and cody…keep cody and draft a G/C high
GO BUCS!!!!
August 15th, 2025 at 8:42 am
Joe … ‘ Bredeson is not liked by fans.’
Not sure where that comes from Joe. Yes free agents oftentimes get the brunt of the criticism because they’re not ‘home-grown’, but Ben held his own last year, gave us a full 17 games and over 1100 offensive snaps. Did good enough to get a new 3-year contract from JL.
August 15th, 2025 at 9:00 am
According to numbers our pass blocking efficiency has actually been middle of the pack the last two years and that is with Wirfs.
In the years 2020 thru 2022, the Bucs finished either 1st or 2nd in lowest percentage of sacks allowed.
Again, now we are somewhere in the middle of that statistic.
I tend to think opposite of the ESPN analyst. If Wirfs is out for some time, I see a decline in our pass block win rate that won’t put us anywhere close to 1st.
August 15th, 2025 at 9:01 am
What a difference from 3 and 4 years ago! You must give JL and his staff much of the credit! He found some players!!! LFG!
August 15th, 2025 at 9:01 am
Buccaneer Bonzai… Glad we have a statistician on the page.
Would you say 80% of the fans want to get rid of developing and future good players or is it 90%?
Give me a break, you have no idea how many fans have any kind of opinion. Unless you polled every single fan of the Buccaneers and you had a 100% response would you have any clue what Bucs fans in general are thinking. That was a huge overstatement on your part. I bet fans that go on websites and post opinions are well below 5% of the total fan base. The loudmouth posters who are just trolls but not representative of our fan base. And even the trolls aren’t a huge portion of the sensible fans that post. Sweeping statements like that are core part of racism, anti-semitism and the like. Anytime you say “most of them” before a negative statement against a group of people, you’re playing with fire if you don’t have rock solid stats to back up that crappy opinion.
I would say, without solid polling numbers to back it up, that any Bucs fan that read your post would think you’re a moron
August 15th, 2025 at 9:14 am
Those “fans” usually “know” more than the professionals who have done this for combined decades.
August 15th, 2025 at 9:21 am
“In the years 2020 thru 2022, the Bucs finished either 1st or 2nd in lowest percentage of sacks allowed.”
Our OL run blocking and pass protection improved from 2023 to 2024.
The years you pointed out is partly because Brady was so good at getting the ball out, dumping it off to his hot, or deading the play. Brady took 65 sacks in 3 seasons.
Mayfield on the other hand, has had 80 sacks(40 in each season) in 2 years even with the OL improvement and that’s one of the cons of his game and why even now he’s still talking about getting the ball out of his hands a.s.a.p
August 15th, 2025 at 10:00 am
Action.com rates Buccaneers offensive line without Words #5 and with Wirfs tied with Eagles for #1. These aren’t reporters. They are professional sports bettors.
August 15th, 2025 at 10:19 am
I never wanted to dump Evans. Nor did I want to dump Mauch or any of the others mentioned. However, if Braswell shows little this year I’m ready to dump him.
August 15th, 2025 at 11:39 am
We are lucky to have the superior medical staff that decided it is better to wait on Wirfs’ surgery until he can prove how much the team will miss him when Baker is getting assaulted in the opening weeks.
August 15th, 2025 at 11:51 am
KA, hate to break it to you, but BBonzai and DRules are educated Bucs fans. I get on sites like this so I can learn more about the sport. Fans like them are a big part. I’ve been a devoted fan for the 46 years I’ve known about the Bucs. And believe me, I never lost patience with the players even during the da**ed Dark Ages of the 1980s and early 1990s.
August 15th, 2025 at 12:31 pm
I’ve been a. Bucs fan since Steve Spurrier took the first snap. September 12, 1976, against the Houston Oilers. Bucs fans has a history of over hyping the team during the Preseason. And soon as they lose their first game, or a player get injured, or a player have a bad game. Here comes the – Boo Birds, calling for the HC to be fired, players to be traded.
It’s all good now with this fan base
But wait until November 🤣🤣🤣
August 15th, 2025 at 12:39 pm
Let’s pump the brakes on Goedeke possibly being the best RT in the league. The Eagles and Lions probably have to scoff at the assertion. Chargers fans would too, but they would be wrong.
August 15th, 2025 at 1:03 pm
Yeah, I don’t really remember anyone wanting to give up on Cody or Mike, after only a year or so… BUT, I do remember them wanting to with Luke, though! Wasn’t there quite a few of them calling him “Godonkey,” or something!? LoL
August 15th, 2025 at 1:09 pm
Heck is gonna be better at run blocking than pass blocking from what I saw in his film. Pretty good going forward, awkward as Heck going back in pass pro. The smart young OC will be running more the first few games and setting up screens to the left to get him well oiled and fired up.
August 15th, 2025 at 1:14 pm
Hate to break it to ya there “LakelandBuc,” BUT what you are describing is literally, EVERY single fan base on the face of the planet. It’s definitely NOT exclusive to just Bucs Fans. LoL
August 15th, 2025 at 1:17 pm
KA are you really gonna trash sweeping generalizations then say they are the core of racism and anti semitism? Which is redundant. Seems like a massive generalization on your part as well. Let’s just keep the words racism out of it unless someone is being racist, agree?
While I don’t agree with either post I will say some Bucs fans, not all Bucs fans are terrible judges for what is good for a team and what is bad. I’ve heard too many non posters say we need to get rid of Bowles or White or Dean. All three of those folks will be core contributors to our Super Bowl aspirations.
August 15th, 2025 at 5:35 pm
KABucs- I agree that sweeping generalizations of people or their opinions are ridiculous to make without supporting data and LOTS of it. And yes, they can even get dangerous very quickly. I for one would like to see less of them.
Really excited for the season because the team has so much talent. I hope they can live up to it and not get injured. It’s a long season…
August 15th, 2025 at 7:15 pm
I can’t figure out why no web site anywhere is really saying anything about the job Charlie Heck is doing. Nothing positive, nothing negative. I can only hope that no news is good news.
August 15th, 2025 at 9:24 pm
I was confident last year but I’m even more confident this year. I’m like 2001 confident.
August 15th, 2025 at 9:25 pm
Don’t worry about Heck they’ll scheme around him plus this offense is all about short passes and quick releases.
August 15th, 2025 at 9:29 pm
Goedeke is a vg right tackle and our interior is solid. Btw has anyone even given kudos to our new o line coach Carberry?
August 16th, 2025 at 6:37 pm
Heck must be holding his own, nothing one way or the other. No news is good news I trust. I figure if he was screwing up that’s all we would here, so in Heck we trust