The Tampa Bay Buccaneers announced a last-minute change to their Week 1 offensive line plans ahead of Sunday’s opener against Atlanta, building on work done in practice leading up to the game.
“When we gave them a couple reps out there, at first we were doing it out of emergency,” Bowles stated. “Then it was, ‘Hey, he looks pretty good out there,’ and Ben looked pretty good at center. Then we just started messing with it a little bit, and the more we saw it the more it started coming into focus, and when I first asked him to do it I said ‘in case of emergency,’ and he just took a few reps here and there.”
Bowles continued,
“Then it got to being kind of an emergency and started looking better and better, and he was firing off the ball in the run game, and we were like, ‘Hey, we might be more physical with Graham at tackle and Ben at center and Jordan at guard, because he had a really good preseason.”
Kevin Carberry, Brian Picucci, and Josh Grizzard shared Bowles’ assessment after reviewing practice footage.
“Between me, Carbs and Grizz, we all talked about it and we all saw the same thing but nobody wanted to say it,” Bowles stated. “So I was the bad guy to say it. Then they were like, ‘Yeah, he does. He does look very good out there. Then we went with it.”
The Buccaneers completed their lineup adjustment by placing Michael Jordan at left guard, and this unit contributed to the team’s 23-20 victory. While head coach Todd Bowles didn’t specify the plan for Week 2 against the Texans, it’s likely they’ll continue with the successful lineup.
“We’ll see what it is this week,” Bowles said, via a team’s website. “I thought Graham, for the first time at tackle, played very well. I thought Bredeson did a very good job at center, especially controlling where the blitzes go and the pickups and everything like that. Michael Jordan played well at guard, as well. So, they played tough and they battled. You know, for those guys moving around, playing their first game at different positions, I thought they did a good job. Going forward, we’ll see.”
Tampa Bay expects Tristan Wirfs to return in a few weeks, but if the current lineup continues to perform well, there’s no rush to accelerate his comeback.
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