It started out as a side experiment just in case the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ran into more injury problems on their offensive line. It turned into the solution, albeit temporary, for the one big injury concern they already have.
Tristan Wirfs, who made history in 2024 by becoming the first player in NFL history to earn first-team Associated Press All-Pro nods at both left and right tackle, had arthroscopic knee surgery and missed all of preseason and training camp. The Buccaneers did not put him on injured reserve or the PUP list to start the regular season, holding out hope that he would return sooner than Week Five, but Wirfs was never expected to be ready for the season opener. As such, the Buccaneers spent most of August preparing Charlie Heck, signed in the offseason to be the swing tackle, to start at left tackle in Week One against Atlanta.
Somewhere in August, though, the Buccaneers also tested out a contingency plan. In a pinch, could they move second-year player Graham Barton, who started at center in 2024 after being drafted 26th overall, to left tackle? Barton played left tackle for three seasons at Duke but was specifically drafted to play center in the NFL. He obviously knew the technique to play the position, but there are a lot of college left tackles who never play in the big leagues.
Turns out, Barton looked good at the new but familiar spot, especially in regards to his drive-blocking on running plays. That had Head Coach Todd Bowles, Offensive Line Coach Kevin Carberry and Offensive Coordinator Josh Grizzard all giving each other sideways glances but no in-depth conversations about what they were seeing. Finally, Bowles gave voice to what they were all thinking.
"Between me, 'Carbs' and 'Grizz,' we all talked about it and we all saw the same thing, but nobody wanted to say it. So, I was the bad guy to say it, but they were like, 'Yeah, he does. He does look very good out there…This is pretty good.' And then we went with it."
"It" was the move of Barton to left tackle to fill in for Wirfs, with starting left guard Ben Bredeson sliding over to center and late-summer addition Michael Jordan, whose 40 career NFL starts were mostly at left guard, taking over at that spot for Bredeson. The Bucs started working that lineup a couple weeks ago but let the cat out of the bag until about an hour before Sunday's game in Atlanta.
"Well, when we gave [Barton] a couple reps out there, at first it was we were doing it out of emergency," said Bowles. "[We were] like, 'Hey, he looks pretty good out there.' Then Ben looked pretty good at center and then we just started messing with it a little bit. The more we saw it, the more it started coming into focus.