We often overlook the extraordinary when it comes to the Bucs. I am certainly guilty of this. When one part of the team is good, we tend to take it for granted as we hyper-focus on the more volatile or questionable areas of the roster. Will the pass rush improve? Will the interior offensive line hold up better? Will the Bucs bring in a veteran corner to bolster secondary depth?
Because of that, we (and at the very least I mean I), forget to appreciate truly strong to elite play. I want to correct that for at least one article.
The Bucs have a pair of bookend tackles that are the envy of most of the NFL. Luke Goedeke and Tristan Wirfs are one of the best tackle duos in a league of strong pairings.
Bucs Tackle Duo 2024
After a successful transition from left guard to right tackle in 2023, Luke Goedeke leveled up in 2024. His total pressures allowed fell from 44 to 17 and his pressure rate allowed fell correspondingly from 5.65% to 3.00%. His run blocking improved as well as he formed a strong bond with right guard Cody Mauch to become one of the best double team pairings in the NFL.
Meanwhile left tackle Tristan Wirfs was in the midst of one of his best pass blocking seasons of his career. The offensive line as a whole helped the Bucs to one of their best rushing seasons in franchise history.
I took a look at each team’s primary tackle duo in 2024 across several areas that include pressure and sack rate allowed, pass block efficiency and run blocking metrics. Wirfs and Goedeke ranked second amongst those 32 pairings. The only tackle team that out ranked the Bucs’ dynamic duo was Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata of the Eagles.
Here is a look at the four players across various measurable areas:
Across the 2024 and 2025 seasons as a whole, Wirfs and Goedeke’s combined performance in 2024 ranked fourth out of 64 pairing seasons.
Wirfs and Goedeke in 2025
2025 was marred by injury for the entire Bucs offensive line. Tampa Bay’s tackles were not immune. Wirfs missed five games while Goedeke missed six. But when each player was on the field they still performed at a high level, although their performance was hindered some by the injuries they had to play through.
Despite the slight fall off the two still put together the fourth best combined performance of the season behind Philadelphia (again – those guys are really good), Denver’s Garrett Bolles and Mike McGlinchey, and Detroit’s Penei Sewell and Taylor Decker.
What should be an especially positive sign for Bucs fans is the trajectory Wirfs was on to end last year. Week 13 to week 18 of 2025 may have been the most dominant stretch of his career. Two pressures across 104 opportunities, a 99.0 efficiency rating and run and pass block grades both north of 90. No other tackle in football graded out better over that timeframe than him.
With Detroit moving on from Taylor Decker, Wirfs and Goedeke are now entrenched as one of the top three tackle pairs in the league. That’s right where the Bucs thought they would be and it provides them with the foundation for putting their offense back in the top five.
Wirfs and Goedeke on Tape
It’s Sunday Funday so I thought I would leave you with some of the more fun clips of the two from the internets.
And then what Wirfs did to him when they faced off on the backside!? Talk about ELITE. My goodness. pic.twitter.com/COnlrEqkKJ
— Brandon Thorn (@BrandonThornNFL) May 14, 2026
Wirfs deleting 3 defenders on 3 different reps in the run game pic.twitter.com/fsBwKea61a
— Brandon Thorn (@BrandonThornNFL) November 18, 2025
Wirfs’ jump set-snatch on the frontside of play-action pic.twitter.com/c8UGACnhhr
— Brandon Thorn (@BrandonThornNFL) October 6, 2025
All 14 reps of Goedeke vs Hutchinson in pass protection. Shutout performance by the #Bucs RT pic.twitter.com/sxrBREkytc
— Jon Ledyard (@LedyardNFLDraft) October 16, 2023
*Many of these clips came from Brandon Thorn. Thorn is, in my opinion, the leading offensive line analyst in the public space right now. He does fantastic work at Bleacher Report as well as on his Substack, Establish the Run