The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ biggest edge heading into 2026 might not be a flashy skill player or a headline-grabbing scheme change. It’s the group up front.
Tampa Bay has quietly assembled one of the NFL’s best offensive lines over the past few seasons, and when that unit is intact, it changes everything. That was hard to see in 2025, when injuries ripped the group apart and the starting five never took a single snap together.
The damage was severe. Tristan Wirfs, the team’s best player and an All-Pro left tackle, missed five games.
Ben Bredeson and Luke Goedeke each missed six. Cody Mauch was lost to a season-ending injury in Week 2.
Graham Barton was the only lineman who made it through the year without missing time.
That kind of breakdown is almost impossible to absorb cleanly, and it helps explain why Tampa Bay’s offense slid so sharply. In 2024, the Buccaneers ranked No. 3 in total offense at 399.5 yards per game, finished No. 3 in passing offense and No. 4 in rushing offense, and averaged 29.5 points per game, the third-best mark in franchise history. Last season, that number fell to 22.4 points per game.
A lot of the conversation around that drop has centered on the departure of offensive coordinator Liam Coen and the struggles of his replacement, Josh Grizzard. But the injuries along the offensive line were a major part of the story too, even if they didn’t always get the same attention.
Now the Bucs are heading into the new season with that group back healthy, and that matters. The same starting line that was so dominant in 2024 is expected to be together again, and the continuity could be a difference-maker for Baker Mayfield and the offense around him.
USAToday’s Jacob Camenker clearly viewed the unit through that lens when he ranked every team’s offensive line ahead of the upcoming season. Tampa Bay landed at No. 5.
“Barton was the only Buccaneers offensive lineman to play more than 800 snaps last season. Wirfs, Goedeke and Mauch all missed time due to injury, so getting them back healthy could help Tampa Bay's offensive line establish itself as one of the league's best,” wrote Camenker.
That’s the case for the Buccaneers in a nutshell. They already know what this line can do. If it stays whole, it gives Tampa Bay a real shot to build on what it was in 2024 rather than what injuries forced it to become in 2025.
And if the Buccaneers make the kind of run they believe they can make, the work in the trenches will be a big reason why.
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