Offensive Line Beginning To Get The Hang Of Things?
October 12th, 2026
Turning the corner?
Joe does not believe in coincidences in football.
No, the Bucs’ offensive line has not been great through five games, and that’s supposed to be the strength of the team.
No lineman looked good in Week 1. Since, All-Pro left tackle Tristan Wirfs has been his dominant self. No worries there.
So the last time these five guys played together as a unit prior to this season, January 2025, they were among the best lines in the league. About 20 months later, then suddenly four of the five fall off the map all at the same time?
Joe could see one or two, but four? That’s too much of a coincidence for Joe to swallow as happenstance.
What’s the difference between January 2025 and this fall? New offensive coordinator and new scheme. And with an offensive line, sometimes that takes time.
Did the line turn the corner in Dallas on Thursday? Bucky Irving ran for 165 yards on 21 carries and averaged 7.9 yards a touch on the ground. That generally doesn’t happen with wet noodles on the front line.
Yeah, the Cowboys have a trash defense, no doubt. Pittsburgh, the Bucs’ opponent in six days, is a different beast on defense. They may not be playing to their normal excellent standards on defense in the Steel City, but they aren’t the Cowboys.
Joe has a hunch the offensive line is beginning to break out.
Problem: Is it too late?
Great rep on duo by Goedecke, Cody Mauch and Payne Durham pic.twitter.com/Ahdljx5hU8
— JP Acosta (@acosta32_jp) October 9, 2026
October 12th, 2026 at 12:10 am
Is it too late? One game back in week 5? Yeah, back up the U-Haul!
October 12th, 2026 at 12:13 am
The Bucs could be 5 games back with 3 to play and still win. Bowles knows how to overcome adversity. Go Bucs.
October 12th, 2026 at 12:49 am
About time these adult players who call themselves a team finally get it.
October 12th, 2026 at 2:02 am
Pointed this out a bit ago, but if you go back to the Coen season, it really wasn’t until week 4, vs the Eagles, that the line played a good game. In large part, that was because of how terrible Sucke was at tackle when he was filling in, but there were other issues, in particular with Barton who was often out of position, and when Cody would expect help on combo blocks, Barton wouldn’t be there, and the dopes in the comments were complaining about how bad Cody was and how he needed to be benched. In fairness to Barton, he was a rookie moving from tackle to center, which is hard enough – but in Coen’s offense, the lineman moved a ton (more than I’ve ever seen, and certainly more than they do now).
Anyways, watching the tape from this year, a lot of the issues where people were saying the line sucked had nothing to do with the 5 starters on the offensive line, it was about how incredibly awful Durham is at blocking, and how he’d get run over, and how Gainwell just gets shoved around when attempting to block. For the most part, when the defenses haven’t blitzed, and the line itself hasn’t looked bad at all – and that’s why I was saying a couple of weeks ago we could see dramatic improvement as it just looks like guys aren’t sure what they’re doing.
Maybe playing in those worthless preseason games would help. Maybe it would help Baker too, who had 4 attempts in the preseason, all 4 passes were behind the line of scrimmage, and even then only 2 of them were caught. Maybe, in an era where you have very limited practices, maybe you should use any time available to you, to try to work out things instead of saving it for the regular season.
October 12th, 2026 at 2:37 am
Amazing how much better the line looks when you don’t have Mayfield standing behind them holding onto the ball for 5 seconds.
October 12th, 2026 at 2:47 am
These guys are highly paid professional football players. At the NFL level they have established themselves as not being in their first rodeo so to speak. During training camp and practices they should have worked the bugs out then. It should not take them 5 weeks into the season before they first appear to be functioning properly as a unit. The offensive line was supposed to be one of the strongest parts of the team. If they are not sure what they are supposed to be doing, familiar with scheme, blocking assignments etc it may be too late and too many losses already to turn things around. The next game will be tough to walk away with a win.
October 12th, 2026 at 5:22 am
Goedeke has been the best of the linemen.
He’s played well all season. Wirfs sucked week one. Was mediocre next week.
Last game was first time he looked dominate again.
This line can run block. Always have.
They were horrible at pass blocking last year, before Zack Robinson arrived.
And his terrible schemes have only made it worse.
Mauch doesn’t look like himself. Must be rust from missing last season.
Barton is a horrible center.
Bredesen is a really bad guard.
Again, they can run block.
But center of the line collapses when pass blocking.