Very Mixed Reviews For Graham Barton
September 18th, 2026
“This guy’s smacking us around on YouTube.”
Joe sees Graham Barton as a good, durable starting center.
Is he great? No. At least not yet. But Barton deserves a standing ovation for starting three games successfully at left tackle last season.
Was Barton strong value as a 2024 first-round draft pick? That’s definitely up for debate.
Former Buccaneers guard Ian Beckles (1990-1996), the long-standing Bucs fan and analyst, sees a different Barton. Beckles sounded fed up on The Ian Beckles Show this week.
“Barton, I’m tired of making excuses for him. I just don’t think he plays well,” Beckles said. “Maybe he’s a guard; I don’t know. It just doesn’t look good.”
Overall, Beckles thought the Bucs’ offensive blocked well enough on Sunday for Tampa Bay to win. He was unimpressed by the debut of Bucs offensive coordinator Zac Robinson.
Beckles also was down on Week 1 for left guard Ben Bredeson, who Beckles said “struggled all game.” Joe’s notes reflect a challenging day for Bredeson, too.
Of course, winning is nearly impossible when you cough up four fumbles.
Interestingly, Barton got love for his Sunday work in Cincinnati from noted offensive line film guru Brandon Thorn (who NFL suits like). He highlighted four plays by Barton (video below), noting Barton’s rare ability on display against stud Bengals defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence.
Graham Barton had a very impressive showing vs Dex in Week 1. The ability to strain, steer and die slowly 1v1 vs. him like this is more rare for a center than many people may think. pic.twitter.com/mGjvoMdYvi
— Brandon Thorn (@BrandonThornNFL) September 16, 2026
September 18th, 2026 at 1:32 pm
Personally,
I believe Graham Barton is a better Tackle than Center
Or maybe a better Guard than Center
But he’s definitely not a starting NFL Center
We would probably get better play at Center from Bredeson and Fenney
I could be wrong
But this is what I’m seeing
September 18th, 2026 at 1:37 pm
It would help if he had a Ryan Jensen gut
Draft or sign a REAL center next year!
He gets bent over backwards and then has to play catch up.
September 18th, 2026 at 1:51 pm
Oddly enough I thought during last year’s shifts that Barron and bredeson might be better swapping positions, but I’m not a line coach
September 18th, 2026 at 1:52 pm
Ring of Honorable Mention GM drafted a guard and moved him to center.
September 18th, 2026 at 2:13 pm
Love his style of play. He’s doesn’t quit, but I think he’d be a much better G.
September 18th, 2026 at 2:24 pm
that’s what happens when you draft a college LT to play center
September 18th, 2026 at 2:28 pm
I never liked the fact that we used a first round Draft pick on him when we had a pretty good Center already. We had much bigger needs and still do… Hainsey is playing damn good in Jacksonville. Even though they have a much better coach!
September 18th, 2026 at 2:31 pm
First of all, take everything Ian “to be honest with cha” Beckles says with a bit of a grain of salt.
However, I do strongly agree with his assessment of Bredeson. I said it last year as well. I thought the Bucs needed to upgrade LG or sign a center and move Barton to LG. But Bredeson looked terrible Sunday.
Barton, like most NFL Centers, must have competent guard play next to them. Barton has been up and down, and having him move to tackle last year didn’t help his growth at center. I still think he has the talent to be a good center. LG is where maybe where he should play.
September 18th, 2026 at 2:32 pm
Gas Licht strikes again!
September 18th, 2026 at 2:32 pm
been saying for 3 years Barton would be an All Pro Guard….at Center he’s serviceable
GO BUCS!!!!!
September 18th, 2026 at 2:34 pm
Long range Barton will probably be an above average center because of his intelligence. At the moment the Bucs would be better with him at guard and Bredeson at center. The combo of Wrifs and Barton on the left side would be dominating.
September 18th, 2026 at 2:48 pm
Graham fine. Baker bad.
September 18th, 2026 at 3:08 pm
Bright Licht oftentimes gets way too cute with his offensive lineman. Remember when he moved Magic Marpet to Center for a while? Let’s not forget that he fell for the Nigerian Prince email scam when he signed JR Sweezey of the Sweezey Swindle? Barton was probably over-drafted and just may not be a good fit at Center. Not sure why Bredeson was signed & topped off while Hainsey ( who could also play Center ) was let go to the Fighting Coens.
September 18th, 2026 at 3:10 pm
Ian Beckles had a negative review of the Bucs. What a surprise.
Just because he played here and got on the radio doesn’t mean he wasn’t a loser at his job and it just a bitter local celebrity.
September 18th, 2026 at 3:14 pm
Licht did admit drafting Marpet to eventually play center. That didn’t work than, it’s not working now. Barton is Marpet 2.0. He’d be a better LG. What do I know, Licht’s the ROH GM.
September 18th, 2026 at 3:29 pm
Yeah, I was saying after watching him last year…we need to draft a LG high (wanted Ioane) but he went right before our pick, which was Bain and i was happy with that….but started thinking Bredeson held up pretty good at C while Barton did well at LT. And I thought the same thing after the draft, maybe a switcharooskie should be done with those two and see what happens….try it in practice and a quarter of the live game Todd and Zac, you never know!
September 18th, 2026 at 3:32 pm
Does he get MORE than his 3rd season to start showing up? Jason Kelce was pure average until his 5th. Anyhow, at this point, we’ve spent a #1 on a guy who still isn’t better than the guy we dumped for him
September 18th, 2026 at 3:47 pm
Brandon Thorn, iirc, was very invested in Barton being an elite center pre-draft. He’s the only one I see still cherry picking clips to pretend Barton can still be that.
September 18th, 2026 at 4:03 pm
Before one more person including former players rip on Barton, maybe they should define a great center? The 5 guys on the line need to play unison and it is not easy to know who messed up handing off a player, etc. Beckles know this and is correct identifying Bredeson as well with issues Sunday. Last year was a total wash for Barton since he played next top sub par guards. I think he will prove more like what Thorn sees as this season goes on since not every nose will be Dexter Lawrence.
September 18th, 2026 at 4:21 pm
If I were grading Barton’s play on Sunday vs. the Bengals, I’d give him a C+, technique was just o.k. but he seems to lack physicality and the strength to overpower defenders.
September 18th, 2026 at 4:23 pm
Barton was a good pick. Maybe he’s not a C but he’s holding his own as those clips show and I’ll take Thorns analysis over Ian’s.
He is super athletic. Watch him move in those clips and tell me that’s not high end play from an OL.
I do agree as a LG he would probably be a Pro Bowler but we got what we got. For as much as Licht can evaluate OL play, it’s drove me nuts for years, the Bucs insistence on moving guys around. Anyone remember Goedeke at LG? Guy was a RT and I’m pretty sure Mauch was a LT and now he’s a RG. Silliness. Developmental malpractice.
September 18th, 2026 at 4:33 pm
He should have been a Guard. Why didn’t you jokers just get a center, he seemed to do well when he played guard when Wirfs was out.
September 18th, 2026 at 4:44 pm
Someone should ask Ryan Jensen his opinion on the subject. That would be a great ex-player to listen to.
September 18th, 2026 at 5:38 pm
Wires is not a guard? He played tackle for Wirfs.
September 18th, 2026 at 5:53 pm
He is extremely athletic and smart. He gets the job done. He can play multiple roles. It just seems like center might not be tapping into his true potential. Being tall doesn’t seem like an advantage for a center to me.
September 18th, 2026 at 6:06 pm
Grahams fine and has all the tools he’s got to be successful as a C. If Bobby Hainsey can come out looking better after getting his butt kicked by AQ Shipley for a few summers, Barton who’s a way better athlete than Bobby can improve as well.
Problem is, you can’t expect Barton nor any offensive OLmen to pass pro for 4-5 seconds against pro level fronts. Even Tristan Wirfs will look bad if he’s got to block a guy and re-engage to give his QB MORE time to do nothing. That’s the steaming pile of dung being stepped around by every commenter on this article.
September 18th, 2026 at 6:18 pm
We’ll see how Graham Barton do against Mason Graham
I’m not impressed with Graham Barton at Center
September 18th, 2026 at 6:56 pm
The only maybe bad play by Barton was on a sack given up, but I also don’t think it was on Barton – it was on Bredeson, who pushed a guy inside towards Barton – but Barton was doubling on a block with Maunch. I don’t know for sure who screwed up, but the morons at PFF claimed it was on Barton and gave him a bad grade. No idea how they know who blew the call, but in either case, it wasn’t getting beat – it was a ‘miscommunication’.
With that said, there were a ton of early season ‘miscommunications’ when Coen was here. If you recall, all the dopes in here were bashing Cody, claiming he was missing blocks – yet when you watched the ALL-22, what you saw was Cody was expecting help inside from Barton who was out of position. Remember Barton was a rookie, moving from tackle to center, and it took him a bit to get it down – but after that he looked great, and the Bucs had one of the very best offensive lines in football – and the clear weak link of the line was Bredeson.
And it still is. Not that Ben is bad, but he’s the weakest link on the line, and I didn’t think he looked very good. Meanwhile I thought Barton was fine. The issue on offense was only one guy, Baker Mayfield, who singlehandedly lost his 5 game in his last 6 starts.
September 18th, 2026 at 7:08 pm
That’s the steaming pile of dung being stepped around by every commenter on this article.
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Is it? Article is about Barton, right? Are you saying any struggles Graham has had or is having are Bakers fault? What’s the connection between this article and the “dung” you claim is being ignored?