Bucs FS Antoine Winfield Jr.  – Photo by: USA Today

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Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds answers your questions from the @PewterReport X account this week in the Bucs Mailbag. Submit your question to SR each week via X using the hashtag #PRMailbag.  Here are the Bucs questions we chose to answer for this week’s edition.

QUESTION: Can the Bucs seek league action to address the consistently bad calls? Seems one-sided, and it is happening way too often. The Bucs aren’t the only team getting screwed but it sure seems like the bulk of the horrendous calls don’t go our way. I haven’t seen it this bad.

ANSWER: I spent a good deal of my opening statement in my post-game 2-Point Conversion column addressing the horrible officiating from Sunday’s 23-3 win over the Saints in New Orleans where the officials robbed Bucs safety Antoine Winfield Jr. of two touchdowns. On the first one, a 51-yard scoop-and-score fumble recovery for a touchdown, the refs denied Winfield’s score because of a supposed inadvertent whistle just before halftime. That seems incredibly suspicious to me given the fact that the Fox broadcast replayed that play and no whistle was heard at all.

Then Winfield dove for an interception in the second half, ripping the ball out of Chris Olave’s hands and rolling to the ground untouched before getting up and racing 50 yards for another apparent score. But the officials wrongly said that Winfield was down by contact. Olave had nothing to do with Winfield hitting the turf, nor did he touch Winfield when he was down. That was a blatantly erroneous call. Both blown calls could have detrimental effects on Winfield’s chances of making the Pro Bowl this year and perhaps even the Hall of Fame down the road if he doesn’t make the Pro Bowl season. Who knows?

Bucs FS Antoine Winfield Jr. – Photo by: Jeffrey Jones/PR

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles was pissed about the officiating, but had to choose his words carefully to avoid getting fined by the league, which is just ridiculous. Players and coaches should have the right to speak freely about egregiously wrong officiating. After the game, Bowles said he did not hear a whistle on Winfield’s fumble recovery for a touchdown.

“No, they said it was an erroneous whistle,” Bowles said. “As soon as he hit him, he stripped him, so … (shakes head) … I’ve got no answers for that.”

“I’m still pissed off over some of it. That’s, that’s, that’s tough – that’s tough sledding now. I mean he did a helluva job today getting the ball out. We’ve got to do something … we’ll discuss that with the league and go from there.”

Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: Jeffrey Jones/PR

Bowles is on the NFL Competition Committee and will certainly address this matter in league meetings in the offseason. But in the meantime, the Bucs will send in those plays to the league office to protest and they may get a worthless, after-the-fact apology from the NFL. Meanwhile, there is absolutely no accountability for the incompetent officials who continue to make dumb, obviously bad calls on an apparent regular basis.

It’s a shame that the league doesn’t see the value in having full-time officials, and honestly, it’s embarrassing that the NFL doesn’t. Fans of this sport, players and coaches deserve better.

QUESTION: I know Todd Bowles and Co. won’t do it, but someone has to ask if Graham Barton should move to guard. He gets pushed back way too much and never pushes back. They should utilize his athleticism any way they can.

ANSWER: I too would like to see that because I think at age 27, left guard Ben Bredeson has some grown man strength that 23-year old center Graham Barton just doesn’t possess right now. Since returning to center in Week 4, Barton has allowed 12 pressures and a sack, according to Pro Football Focus. He had really rough games against Philadelphia in Week 4 and Detroit in Week 7 where he gave up a season-high six pressures at center. I haven’t watched the tape from Sunday’s game at New Orleans yet and the PFF grades haven’t come yet, but it looked rough when I was watching the game live.

It’s one thing to see offensive linemen on the ground when they are pancaking defensive linemen, linebackers and defensive linemen down the field. But when offensive linemen are on the ground in the backfield it’s never a good sign. And I remember seeing Barton on the turf too many times on Sunday against the Saints. Throw in the fact that the Bucs failed miserably to run up the middle on eight runs from the New Orleans 1-yard line in goal-to-go situations before Sean Tucker finally punched it in also wasn’t a great look.

Bucs DT Vita Vea and C Graham Barton – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

I have probed the front office about the Bucs possibly moving Barton to guard where I think he would be outstanding and could certainly turn into the next Ali Marpet. But alas, it’s not going to happen. Marpet was moved to center for the 2017 season after his first two years at guard and it was his worst year in Tampa Bay. Marpet was a slightly above average center, but turned into a Pro Bowl-caliber guard when he returned to that position the following season and was ultimately rewarded with his first and only Pro Bowl nod in 2021.

I think Barton has Pro Bowl potential at either interior offensive line spot due to his athleticism, but that success would be realized sooner at guard. If Barton is going to stay at center and improve, he’s got to continue to work on his core and further develop the strength in his lower body next offseason. He’s no stranger to the weight room, but at 6-foot-5, Barton needs to play with a lower center of gravity and develop a better anchor in pass protection. Unfortunately, we saw Barton get blown up on a somewhat regular basis in training camp by 347-pound Vita Vea, so what’s happening now is not a surprise.

Take it with a grain of salt, but Barton had an overall Pro Football Focus grade of 52.5 this season through the first seven weeks. He had 55.4 grade for the first three weeks of the season at left tackle and then a 56.8 grade for the last four games at center – not including the Week 8 game at New Orleans, which hasn’t been graded by PFF as of now.

QUESTION: What the hell was wrong with Tristan Wirfs on Sunday? Uncharacteristic mental penalties and he was getting worked over by a semi-bust DE.

ANSWER: No NFL player is going to be perfect all season – not over 17 games. Even All-Pros like Tristan Wirfs can have an off game, and it seems like his early false start penalties seemed to snowball into surrendering a sack and a half to Saints defensive end Chase Young, who also stripped Baker Mayfield of the football on one occasion.

Young missed the first four weeks of the season with a calf injury and returned to action in Week 6. He’s only played in three games so far, and certainly has fresher legs than Wirfs, who has played in the last five games after returning from summer knee surgery. Young is a talented player and was the second overall pick by Washington in 2020 for a reason. But he’s never really put it all together and lived up to that draft billing with any consistency.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield and Saints DE Chase Young – Photo by: Jeffrey Jones/PR

Young, who is only 26 yet has been in the league for six years, has two sacks on the season and is off to a good start in 2025. His career high in terms of sacks is 7.5, which he had as a rookie and again in 2023. It’s fair to call Young a semi-bust given his sporadic sack production, but from a talent standpoint he’s no slouch.

Wirfs’ surgically repaired knee may not be 100%, but I don’t know that for sure. The five-time Pro Bowler certainly didn’t look like his regular dominant self on Sunday in New Orleans and I’m sure he’s ready for the bye week. Wirfs will get a chance at a rematch against Young in Tampa Bay in Week 14 and I’m sure he’s already thinking about it.

QUESTION: We’ve already played this season without our top WRs and the offense managed to look fine. But the last two weeks have been a mess. Are we really this dependent on Bucky Irving?

ANSWER: It’s not just Bucky Irving who could help the offense right now. It’s also right tackle Luke Goedeke and wide receiver Chris Godwin Jr. that need to return – and return to form – to truly help Josh Grizzard’s unit. Remember, the Bucs were able to score 38 points at Seattle in Week 5 and win, and drop 30 points on San Francisco for a victory in Week 6 without Irving – and even Mike Evans, too.

There’s no doubt that Irving’s return could provide some big play ability to a running game that has been missing big plays. Tampa Bay only has two runs longer than 20 yards this year, and both of them are from Baker Mayfield on scrambles. That’s far from ideal, especially when the running backs combined for 14 explosive runs of 20 yards or more last year.

Bucs RB Bucky Irving – Photo by: USA Today

Luke Haggard seemed to be playing better at right guard than either veterans Mike Jordan and Dan Feeney have. Perhaps his return from a shoulder injury – hopefully after the bye week – can bring some stability to that position. And when Goedeke and Irving come back from foot injuries they need to hit the ground running – literally.

I’m concerned about Godwin’s fibula injury. Bucs head coach Todd Bowles has no idea how long he’ll be out and keeps saying it’s a week-to-week injury. But the fact that it’s the fibula on the same ankle he broke is not a good sign to me – although the pain is higher up in the leg and not down by the ankle. I haven’t heard anything negative about the injury off the record from my sources, but I also haven’t heard anything that is encouraging and would put my mind at ease, either. It’s been crickets. Godwin has missed the last three games and I hope he can return after the bye week. We’ll see.

QUESTION: On a scale 1-10, with 10 being best, where are the Bucs right now?

ANSWER: Offensively, the Buccaneers are a six right now. Defensively, Tampa Bay is an an eight coming off a beatdown of the Saints in New Orleans. So average those scores out and I would suggest that this team is a seven on a 10 scale. That translates to a playoff team for sure, and one that is on the path to winning a fifth straight NFC South championship.

But are the Bucs playing well enough to advance to the NFC Championship Game or perhaps win a Super Bowl? No, not with the way the offensive is playing in recent weeks. After scoring 38 points at Seattle and then 30 against San Francisco, Tampa Bay’s offense only put up nine points at Detroit and just 16 points at New Orleans.

Bucs ILB Lavonte David and CB Zyon McCollum – Photo by: USA Today

Of course the Bucs offense is missing star wide receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin Jr., and the league’s defensive coordinators have more film on rookie receiver Emeka Egbuka now at the midway point, and can better scheme to stop him. Tampa Bay is also reeling on the right side of the offensive line where its been a revolving door at guard between Cody Mauch, who is out for the year, Luke Haggard, Michael Jordan and Dan Feeney.

Throw in the fact that Bucky Irving has missed the last four games and quarterback Baker Mayfield is hobbled with knee and oblique injuries and it’s understandable that Josh Grizzard’s unit has faced some challenges over the last two weeks. This team needs the bye week in the worst way, and thankfully Tampa Bay is playing some complementary football right now and the burden of winning doesn’t rest solely with the offense as it did a year ago when the defense was battered with injuries and ineffective play.