Bucs Announce Surprising Offensive Line Shuffle For Week 1

Just moments before kickoff of the Bucs’ 2025 regular season opener in Atlanta against the Falcons, general manager Jason Licht announced some surprising news regarding the team’s starting offensive line.

On the Bucs’ radio pregame show, Licht announced that in the absence of All-Pro left tackle Tristan Wirfs, it won’t be swing tackle Charlie Heck filling in and making the start. Instead, Tampa Bay is completely shuffling the pieces, moving left guard Ben Bredeson to center, making room for practice squad elevation Michael Jordan to start at left guard while second-year center Graham Barton slides out to left tackle, where he will fill in for Wirfs.

This is a significant departure from the assumed and longtime plan for Wirfs’ absence. Once the news hit that the two-time All-Pro would miss the start of the season, it was Charlie Heck who took all of the starter reps at left tackle throughout training camp. That was a simple plug-and-play, as it would leave Bredeson at left guard, Barton at center and of course keep the right side intact with Cody Mauch at right guard and Luke Goedeke at right tackle.

Now, the interior and entire left side of the line is being shuffled. This introduces a new quarterback-center combination in Bredeson and Baker Mayfield, plus it sees Barton return to the left tackle spot he played throughout his college career at Duke.

There were times during training camp when the Bucs did get some reps in with a reconfigured offensive line, and that saw Bredeson at center, Barton at left tackle and Elijah Klein at left guard. So, the offense has gotten some reps in with a line similar to the one that will start in Atlanta, only the much more experienced Jordan swaps in for Klein.