The Buccaneers dealt with a rash of injuries along the offensive line in 2025, which spurred nine different starting combinations. Throughout the season and various lineup changes, center Graham Barton anchored the unit. He is an effective drive blocker and his fluidity puts him in advantageous positions. Barton is quick into blocks and stays balanced with superb play strength. He plays with a finisher mentality and shows agile feet in slide to stay with pass rushers in space. Entering year three with Tampa Bay, Barton is emphasizing technique in the trenches.
"Continuing to get stronger," noted Barton of his offseason priority. "I think just holding the depth of the pocket is an important thing for me and getting technically better, just continuing to improve. Trying to see, I think from Year One to Year Two, I think there were a lot of things I did in Year Two that you could not go back to my Year One tape and find and I think I made a lot of improvements in a lot of areas and then I think there are areas where I did not see a lot of improvement. I am trying to get better and improve technically and trying to continue to get stronger; core strength is always a big part of that and trying to get technically better. Been training back home in Nashville."
Injuries shifted scheme based on personnel available in 2025 but over the previous two seasons, the Bucs have primarily used a gap-heavy system with counters to benefit Bucky Irving's skillset and the athletic capability of the club's tackles.Irving thrived on counter traps in 2024, which is the scheme he ran at a high frequency in Eugene for the Ducks. He is proficient at staying in-phase with the puller and then accelerates off the puller's block once he makes contact. Once the guard wraps the MIKE linebacker, Irving creates. It provides the offense with an advantage of getting more bodies to the point of attack and once the defense pursues the power action, it leaves them vulnerable to the counter going the other way with linebackers often being caught in bad angles against climbing offensive linemen.
In 2026, a new era begins for the Buccaneers with Zac Robinson. As part of the Sean McVay coaching tree, Robinson will likely add an uptick in wide zone runs to his menu on Sundays. The wide zone is a horizontal stretch play which creates cutback lanes, aimed at getting the back outside of the defense. It forces safeties to run fit and helps open up RPOs and play-action. It is not about vertical displacement and pushing defenders back, but rather wide zone creates movement laterally to allow the back to cut against the flow of the defense. With Irving and Kenneth Gainwell's aptitude, along with the athleticism of both Tristan Wirfs and Luke Goedeke, revitalization on the ground with wide zone sprinkled in will maximize the unit's capabilities.
"A lot of similarities between him and Liam [Coen] as you guys know and even just listening to him talk today whether it is the marriage with the run and pass game and all the motions and stuff like that, so there will be similarities in that aspect but obviously it is Zac's offense," described Barton. "There will be different concepts that he wants to introduce, a different scheme, different principles and we are ready to learn and I think eagerness is a big thing this year…I would not say wide zone has been a principle of ours in the past but if that is the direction that Zac wants to take, we've got the guys and we have some pretty good athletes out there so we can definitely be able to adjust. One of the strengths of our offensive line is that we can run a bunch of different schemes and have success with them so whatever direction Zac wants to take it in, I think we have the guys and the personnel and running backs to really do it."
