Graham Barton Flipping Positions: “Night-And-Day Difference”
September 15th, 2025
Second game at left tackle.
Yes, of course, Joe knows playing center and playing tackle are two different things.
So last week when Joe talked to Graham Barton and Barton talked about having a crash course. The Bucs’ starting center was pressed into playing left tackle last week for All-Pro Tristan Wirfs while he rehabs from knee surgery.
Sure, Barton played left tackle at Duke two years ago. But even as he told Joe, “There’s a difference between the ACC and the NFL, especially when you are facing Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson.”
And that is what Barton is staring at tonight. He’ll face a serious competitor.
Joe asked Barton to describe some differences between playing center and left tackle.
“It’s a night-and-day difference,” Barton said. “I’d argue it’s almost a different game.
“You’re playing completely different [type of] bodies, longer, faster, twitchier. You’re setting in different paths, you are protecting a different space.
“It’s just a different game. You see different things. You go from this four-by-four box, really a confined box, [to] playing out on an island.”
And to counter taller, quicker guys, Barton must use more speed than he would at center, when he may get by with brute strength and leverage.
If Barton is able to hold his own tonight against Danielle Hunter, who will likely be lined up on the right side of the Houston defense, that would suggest what a premier athlete Barton is — excelling at two very different positions on the offensive line.