For the Bucs, it has been a long training camp. It has been a long preseason. The starters have been held out of games, and so we have been forced to focus on things like backup quarterbacks. But Saturday a glimpse of the immediate future began to emerge. The Bucs starters returned to the field, even if just briefly.

A lot has been said about the Bucs offense now that the offensive line has experienced both planned and unplanned turnover. With second-year center Robert Hainsey and rookie Luke Goedeke set to join the starting ranks, Bucs fans and analysts alike have been conjecturing as to how the team might fare.

With the starting unit mostly together Saturday night against the Colts starters, we now have some sense of what the future holds. With the starters in for just 11 plays, let’s break down the Bucs’ entire first drive.

First-and-10, TB 22

The Bucs start the drive off with a run from shotgun from 11 personnel. With Cam Brate in-line and Julio Jones in tight the Bucs offensive line wins this rep pretty handily. Donovan Smith wins on the front-side edge. Luke Goedeke chips Grover Stewart before moving to the second level and driving Bobby Okereke backwards. Robert Hainsey gives up ground but wins the right by moving Stewart horizontally and creating the hole that Leonard Fournette moves through.

But Shaq Mason and Josh Wells really make this play possible sealing the backside of the hole. Their double-team of DeForest Buckner drives him backwards and allows Mason to move off and get to linebacker Zaire Franklin. This prevents Franklin from getting a solid tackle on Fournette, allowing him to break the tackle and gain an extra 10 yards.

First-and-10, TB 35

Here the Bucs are lined up 3×1 to the right, with Mike Evans on the weak side. This should be an easy pickup with tight end Cam Brate clearing the underneath defenders running a vertical seam route. This allows slot receiver Tyler Johnson to occupy the cleared-out underneath on a short crossing route. The throw is good, but Johnson just drops it.

As for the subject that Bucs nation is abuzz about, let’s look at the protection. Everyone does their job. Even Goedeke. He loses off the snap but recovers well and keeps Stewart from getting to Brady before the throw is made. Goedeke had a rough night against the Colts starters, and specifically Stewart, but this rep goes as a “W” for him.

Second-and-10, TB 35

Again, the Bucs are lined up 3×1. Brady sees that he has Evans in man coverage against Stefon Gilmore to his backside and decides to go after the matchup. Evans gets good sink on his curl route and forces Gilmore to grab him, eliciting a holding penalty.

As for the line, Goedeke and Wells both get beat bad. Here is another angle so you can see it better.

Smith and Mason perform exactly as you would expect players of their caliber to perform. Wells goes high with his stab and doesn’t get a good punch. This allows the edge rusher to get a long arm on Wells and turn the corner. At that point he just loses the race to Brady before the ball gets out. As for Goedeke, he takes a strong push from Stewart and loses his balance immediately. At that point it was all over. Stewart gets Goedeke’s inside shoulder pinned as he bears down on Brady. Goedeke gets close to holding Stewart at the end. Brady is able to use his pocket presence to deftly slide to his left as he makes the throw.

First-and-10, TB 44

Let’s not waste time. Hainsey loses fast and hard to Stewart, who had himself a game. Stewart drags Hainsey straight to Fournette’s running lane three yards behind the line of scrimmage. Kudos to Fournette for spinning out of the tackle and scrambling back to the LOS.

Second-and-10, TB 44

The line loses again, but this time it’s the right side. Wells and Mason each give pressure right away. This play appears to be a designed screen to Brady’s right, but he again reads Evans in man coverage to his right. Gilmore wins this rep giving no separation to Evans and forcing him to have to try and make a tough contested catch. Unfortunately, Evans is unable to haul in the pass.

Third-and-10, TB 44

It may look like multiple offensive linemen lose on this rep, but that’s not the case. Smith is able to push his man up the arc. However, Goedeke loses … again. Stewart beats him with a swim and gets after Brady. I have been as big of a supporter of Goedeke as anyone this preseason, but this is becoming worrying. He lost to a couple of swim moves last week as well. We won’t get into the rest of Goedeke’s night beyond this drive, but it wasn’t pretty.

As for the rest of the play, Brate comes across the middle of the field on a short dig. He creates enough separation for Brady to get the pass to him, and not much else. Between Brate, Kyle Rudolph and Ko Kieft the Bucs have almost nothing in terms of YAC from the tight end position. I believe Cade Otton may be the team’s only hope in this area. But Otton isn’t likely to get a ton of snaps this year. Until then Brate provides a solid pair of hands on short-to-intermediate routes.

Fourth-and-3, IND 49

Here the line does well. The play is designed to be a quick-hitter and Brady is given the requisite time to make the right read. I think this is a good opportunity to make sure we re-set expectations when it comes to line play. Brandon Thorn of Trench Warfare sums it up best here.

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Many people think too rigidly with OL play. Like if direct movement in the run game or immediate halting of movement in the pass game doesn&#39;t happen it can&#39;t be a great rep, which is just wrong. Bringing nuance into the discussion is invaluable!</p>&mdash; Brandon Thorn (@BrandonThornNFL) <a href=”https://twitter.com/BrandonThornNFL/status/1564274816819122177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>August 29, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>

Now onto the back-half of the play. Brady puts a good ball on Johnson running the slant. And Johnson redeems himself from earlier by using his frame to box out the much smaller Kenny Moore. Johnson makes a good catch and pushes up-field for a few extra yards.

First-and-10, IND 39

This is the best pass protection rep of the entire drive for the offensive line. Brady is given plenty of time to run through his reads and make a good strong throw that he can step into.

While Goedeke had problems with timing for a good portion of the first half (he was slow off the ball more often than not), this rep was not one of them. Here he was quick off the snap to get a shuffle step to his right and prevent Stewart from shooting the A gap. He matches Stewart’s power and gets a good latch, using it to not let Stewart move more than a couple of feet from their point of engagement.

Meanwhile, Brady sees Julio Jones at the top of the screen in what appears to be match coverage. This results in Jones getting a one-on-one matchup on a comeback route. Jones breaks at the top of his stem and creates plenty of room with the underneath defender having to stay shallow to occupy Fournette out of the backfield. Brady fires a bead to Jones for a 20-yard gain.

First-and-10, IND 19

Good protection here. Goedeke in particular shows well. Brady looks to his left for his primary and secondary read. Johnson’s route takes him into the teeth of the zone coverage. So, Brady fires to Jaelon Darden who is hanging behind the line of scrimmage.  Gilmore, who was straddling his zone to cover both Johnson and Darden closes quickly to relegate the play to a minimal gain.

Second-and-8, IND 17

Brady has a half-field read. He first looks to Darden on the outside running the fade. Darden isn’t able to create a window, so Brady goes with a quick checkdown to Fournette.  Fournette has the opportunity to continue on his path and push up-field once he makes the catch. He instead tries to shake his defender with a quick stop to see if he can work back to the middle of the field. Instead, he stumbles yielding a minimal gain.

Third-and-6, IND 15

This is a designed touch for Brate in the flat with Johnson and Breshad Perriman providing blocks for him to try and move up-field for a first down. Brate makes a good catch, but as we established earlier in the drive, he isn’t a YAC guy. Brate just doesn’t have the speed to get to the sticks before the defense closes in on him. And from here the Bucs kick a field goal to end the drive.

Takeaways

Bucs QB Tom Brady – Photo by: USA Today

Several things were present on this drive. Most should make Bucs fans happy. The first and most important is Brady looks as Brady-like as ever. Throughout the drive he displayed everything you would want him to. Quick decision-making, good pocket awareness and movement, excellent arm strength and accuracy. All of these characteristics were on display. In addition, Brady played on time and in rhythm. This bodes well for the team for this season.

The Bucs offensive line performed well overall during this drive. The two stars (Smith and Mason) performed well throughout. Mason lost one rep, but that was it. Hainsey also only lost one rep as he continues to prove overall that he should be ready to provide solid center play this year in Ryan Jensen’s absence. Wells had some tough reps as you would expect a swing tackle to have. And Goedeke had an up-and-down drive.

There were a couple of really good plays (Fournette’s initial run, deep pass to Julio). There were some average reps (recovery on Johnson drop). And there were some ugly reps (Gilmore’s PI, Brate’s first catch). Goedeke will need to take at least a small step forward from this level of play to solidify the line as an average or better unit. And he certainly cannot play like he did in the second and third drives of this game where he looked horrid.

Final Thoughts

The Bucs playmakers did well overall. Fournette did well on both of his runs. Evans drew a PI call due to a good route and later almost made a difficult catch against a good corner. Johnson makes a good play while having a terrible drop. That’s about what you should expect out of a WR5. Jones made a big play. And Brate showed a good pair of hands with little productivity after the catch.

This is a Bucs offense that can regularly succeed. Add back in a Pro-Bowl wide receiver in Chris Godwin, another Top 50 receiver in Russell Gage and an All-Pro right tackle in Tristan Wirfs and the offense is still capable of being elite. Even with an average-ish center and a below average left guard.