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Cody Mauch’s third season with the Bucs before it could really get started, as he tore his meniscus in a Week 2 win over the Texans and missed the rest of 2025. That set him on a long road to recovery and left Tampa Bay reeling as it continued to deal with injuries across the offensive line and especially struggled to replace Mauch at right guard.

With the page turned to the 2026 season, there’s been plenty of talk about bigger-name Bucs on both the offensive and defensive sides of the football, but Mauch returning from injury feeling like himself again and getting back to the trajectory he was on before it shouldn’t be lost as a storyline heading into this season either. Tampa Bay’s offensive line needs its starting right guard to feel good again after missing 15 games and a lot of football due to that knee injury.

Bucs RG Cody Mauch – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Lucky for the Bucs and even luckier for Mauch, that’s right where he is only three days into training camp. He made a triumphant return to OTAs back in May, made it through mini-camp and is now into training camp feeling good – great, even – and finds himself ready to put everything behind him and focus on the season ahead.

“Good, good. Three days in, no issues at all, so it’s feeling great,” Mauch said after Friday’s practice. “[Mini-camp] was [a] good testing process to see how it is, how it was feeling. There [were] no issues then, and [it’s] good again now to come back to this and no issues again. Pretty pumped about that – just put that kind of behind me now, and now we’re onto this year and find things to get better at.”

It’s an important year for Mauch, as it’s the final year of his rookie contract and he’s set to become an unrestricted free agent in March unless Tampa Bay signs him to a second deal prior. The 27-year-old guard came into his fourth NFL season bigger, getting from the 313-315 pounds he played at last year up to around 325 pounds.

Since his 2025 season never fully got going, he didn’t have much of a chance to build on the leap he took from his 2023 rookie season to his second year in 2024. Over 1,133 snaps for the Bucs in 2024, he earned an overall PFF grade of 74.6, with a 68.4 run blocking mark and a 77.2 pass blocking grade. He allowed two sacks and 19 total pressures, a quarter of the sacks he allowed as a rookie and about one-third of the pressures. And he also went from five penalties in 2023 to just two in 2024.

Now, with his 2025 season-ending injury behind him, Cody Mauch is back and ready to take yet another step forward in 2026.

The Band Is Back Together With The Bucs O-Line… Almost

With Cody Mauch’s return to action, the Bucs have the full band back together with their offensive line.

Well, almost.

Two-time All-Pro and five-time Pro Bowler Tristan Wirfs is missing from the lineup after tweaking his hamstring during a running test prior to the official start of training camp. So, while Mauch, right tackle Luke Goedeke, center Graham Barton and left guard Ben Bredeson are out there to begin camp, Wirfs is missing from his left tackle spot, which is something Mauch jokingly pointed out Friday.

Bucs OL coach Kevin Carberry and LT Tristan Wirfs – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“I mean, Tristan had to go and do his little hamstring there,” Mauch said. “But otherwise, we’re close. We’re close. I don’t know what he’s doing! But it’s good to be back out there with the guys. Even having [Justin] Skule and ‘Chuk’ [Ben Chukwuma] in there, it’s good reps for them. They’re good players, too. I’m just so excited to be back out here again.”

The Bucs – and especially quarterback Baker Mayfield – are going to be thrilled to have their full starting five back together this season, as they didn’t play a single game in 2025 with their projected starting offensive line all together. When that group is fully healthy, it’s one of the NFL’s best.

In fact, Mayfield said it’s a top-three unit in the league when healthy. Mauch was appreciative of the confidence his quarterback has in the group, but was also quick to point out their confidence in Mayfield and state that top-three isn’t enough. They want to be No. 1.

“It’s great to have him trust us just as much…We trust him more than anything back there too,” Mauch said. “I think we play well when we’re together – I would absolutely say that, but also if one of us gets beat, ‘Bake’ is going to go make some plays back there. It means a lot that ‘Bake’ has that much faith in us. [We’ve] just got to go out and keep getting better now – top three turning into the best offensive line in the league here.”