Bucs’ Surprise O-Line Shakeup Worked vs. Falcons

It was a secret the Bucs as an organization giddily kept their secret under wraps for weeks.

Thirty minutes before the team opened their 2025 season in Atlanta with a 23-20 win, it was general manager Jason Licht who let the cat out of the bag in an interview on the Bucs Radio Network. The starting lineup was not what media and fans thought it would be.

With All-Pro left tackle Tristan Wirfs set to miss multiple games to start the season, it would not be Charlie Heck filling in for him.

Instead, starting center Graham Barton would kick outside to fill in for him due to his experience playing left tackle at Duke.

But who then would play center with Barton departing the pivot? Not second-year lineman Elijah Klein, who snapped the ball more than anyone not named Barton in training camp.

No, it was starting left guard Ben Bredeson who would move one spot right and snap the ball to quarterback Baker Mayfield – just as he had previously with the New York Giants.

And to finish off the offensive line dosey-doe, the team was thrusting practice squad elevation Mike Jordan into the left guard spot to replace Bredeson.

Due to the timing of the announcement from Licht, it naturally begged the question, “Did Heck fall ill or succumb to a warmup injury?”

It turns out this had all been in the works since the end of training camp. The Bucs had given Barton some snaps at left tackle and made sure that Bredeson had put in some reps snapping to Mayfield in practice in the two weeks leading up to the season opener. This was always a possible lineup. They just weren’t advertising the possibility to gain a potential tactical advantage.

And it worked.

The Falcons, with their revamped pass rush that featured two first-round picks and veteran free agent addition Leonard Floyd, only brought Mayfield down for a sack once all night. And that was from a blitzing defensive back, Billy Bowman Jr.

The makeshift line the Bucs put together largely held up all night. Mayfield thought they did phenomenal saying as much during his post-game press conference. As he discussed the opportunities he had to scramble for 39 yards while keeping multiple drives alive, he made sure to shout out the performance of his offensive line.

“Talk about putting the five in there and what a chemistry we have going on and going from there,” Mayfield said. “But I was teammates with Michael in Carolina, so have a little history, been through some things together. I trust that guy.”

Baker Mayfield’s Praise For His Protection

“I thought the o-line played unbelievable. You look at some of the pressures and they are completely on me,” Mayfield said after the Bucs’ season-opening win. “I’ve got to flip the protection. But that’s on me. Really proud of that group. Ben Bredeson at center. Graham Barton at left tackle. You guys [the media] didn’t know that. Ha ha, joke’s on you. It’s good stuff. But yeah, I thought those guys played great. And Michael Jordan in at left guard. Really proud of that group…”

The Falcons will get credit for some pressures in this game. And Mayfield did scramble more than he probably wanted to. But that wasn’t a function of his up-front protectors as much as you may think.

Most of the backfield penetration Mayfield dealt with came from either extra rushers the Falcons sent via the blitz, or overloads to a single side of the line on simulated pressures. In those situations, it’s the Bucs backfield, not the offensive line that has to step up – literally – to help keep Mayfield clean. And while Rachaad White and Bucky Irving did that job well for the most part, Mayfield still felt uncomfortable leading to his pocket-breaking ways.

Bucs’ Substitutions Did Their Job

But back to play of Tampa Bay’s O-line.

Graham Barton looked like he spent all of last year playing his college position of left tackle – not learning a new interior position and snapping the ball. He allowed a one-on-one pressure to Arnold Ebiketie and lost badly on the right side of the line on an unbalanced setup for a third-and-1 dive play. He would get called for a holding penalty as well.

But other than those three blemishes, he had a clean night for around 50 plays while facing Leonard Floyd and first-round picks Jalon Walker and James Pearce Jr. Offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard was even able to open up the playbook to lean into Barton’s athleticism getting him out in front on at least one creative run where he kicked into space as a lead blocker.

After the game, Bucs head coach Todd Bowles heaped praise on Barton’s ability to remaster the left tackle position after just two weeks of practice.

“He’s been practicing there for a couple weeks now,” Bowles said with a wry smile. “No one [in the media] ever asked a question, so it never came up. He was going to start. He gave us our best chance to win because he’s a hellacious run blocker. We started him out there just in case of emergency and put [Ben] Bredeson at center.

“He looked so damn good out there that it became part of what we were going to do, and that’s what we went with. I’m taking nothing away from Charlie [Heck], but Graham was a tackle in college. He did a hell of a job out there. He was probably quicker-footed, so to speak, in the run game. That’s some of things we were trying to do, and it worked out for us.”

Most importantly with Barton is that he matched the athleticism of his opponents. That was a real concern that most had for Heck heading into the Falcons game. Because of Heck’s size at 6-foot-8 and especially his tall frame, he struggles to match up well against fast and athletic rushers. With quicker feet they put Heck in the impossible position of trying to keep up while pass setting vertically and protecting the arc, while simultaneously not over-setting and giving up the inside rush lane. Barton’s advanced balance and footwork ensured he could do just that as he protected Baker Mayfield’s blindside.

Bredeson played well at center, pulling and sealing in the run game while holding up well in pass protection. His worst pressure allowed was an impossible task trying to pick up a looper from his left, who got around guard Mike Jordan, while also accounting for a rusher who beat right guard Cody Mauch clean inside. It was a true “damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation.” Despite the tall task, he still identified the immediate threat and bought his quarterback an extra split second of time.

Jordan flashed some solid reps as well, climbing to the second level and picking up linebackers. And most importantly he was able to hold up as a pass protector. He had his hands full with Falcons defensive tackle Ruke Orhohroro, and he did give up his inside shoulder on some of the games the Falcons ran. But when it came down to one-on-one matchups, the Bucs gave up more pressure from Mayfield’s right than his left.

The run game wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t even pretty for most of the night. Take out Mayfield’s magic breaking from some poor containment on the part of the Falcons defense and the Bucs gained just 62 yards on 18 carries.

But they also lost 18 yards on another two carries due to penalty – one the aforementioned holding call on Barton and the other a defensive offsides penalty against the Falcons that the Bucs opted for instead of a 7-yard Sean Tucker run. Add those back in and they are right at 4.0 yards per carry as a designed run game for the day.

Bucs O-line Plays Big In The Big Moment

Most importantly, the protection held up in the biggest moment of the game. With just over two minutes left in the game and down by three Tampa Bay was going to have to drive 63 yards downfield in pass-only situations. The Falcons were going to be able to pin their ears back and really test the fill-ins. Baker Mayfield ended up under duress on the third play of that drive. But it was from an overload to the right that left a free rusher bearing down on him. That re-shuffled left side of the O-line did its job.

On the subsequent play – a throwaway by Mayfield where he would draw a roughing the passer call – the protection held up. He just couldn’t find a receiving option he liked. Tristan Wirfs showed his approval of the line play at the conclusion of that action yelling and motivating his teammates to hold up just a few more times.

And on the go-ahead touchdown, Ben Bredeson looked fantastic keeping the nose tackle far from his quarterback while Graham Barton fought James Pearce Jr.’s inside rush to a condensed pocket stalemate. They gave Mayfield the time he needed to find Emeka Egbuka to take a 23-20 lead that the team would never relinquish.

The plan worked. The Bucs offensive line did its job and won the matchups versus the Falcons defensive front. It took Mayfield a quarter or so to truly trust the plan and settle in the pocket. He admitted as much.

But the Bucs’ attempt to pull a fast one on the Falcons worked in Week 1.