Buccaneers’ O-Line, Giants’ Thibodeaux Trade Talk, Bills’ Run Defense: What We’re Hearing | NFL Mailbag

If the past week has taught us anything across the NFL, it is that kickoffs are back.

Thursday night, it was Cardinals kicker Blake Gillikin missing the landing zone by six inches, drawing a flag that allowed the Seahawks to begin their final drive at the 40-yard line, needing just 25 yards to set up Jason Myers’ game-winning 52-yard field goal following one of the most frenetic NFL Sundays in recent memory.

So far this season, Patriots running back Antonio Gibson has returned a kickoff for a touchdown, and as podcast partner Mike Tanier wrote last week, the new kickoff rule has tilted the field significantly in favor of the return team, making the play not just a strategic weapon again but more fun and meaningful than ever.

“NFL teams averaged 4.0 kickoff returns per game through two weeks,” Tanier writes at The Too Deep Zone. “p from 1.7 in 2024 and 1.1 in 2023, when the league began futzing with the rules to make kickoffs safely returnable while disincentivizing touchbacks.”

At least partially as a result of field position now even slightly skewing in the offense’s direction, there have been 12 games decided by three points or fewer, through the season’s first 49 games.

The NFL wanted to bring back the kickoff. Through three-plus weeks, it hasn’t just revived the play; it’s reshaped games and, in some cases, entire Sundays.

Now, let’s get to your questions that are laser-focused on two Super Bowl contenders, and one team that could become a trade deadline seller …

Can the battered and reshuffled Buccaneers’ offensive line protect Baker Mayfield this week against the Eagles’ pass rush? Also, what are your expectations for the running game? ( NP )

In a battle between two of the NFC’s three remaining unbeatens, how the Buccaneers’ offensive line holds up could decide this potential playoff preview Sunday afternoon in Tampa Bay.

The Buccaneers’ offensive line has been snakebitten. They opened the season without Tristan Wirfs, who could return against the Eagles on Sunday, and will now be without starting right guard Cody Mauch and right tackle Luke Goedeke, both on injured reserve.

Wirfs working his way back and both Mauch and Goedeke sidelined is a suboptimal situation with the Eagles flying into town.

“That interior offensive line is going to struggle against the Eagles’ defensive line,” an offensive line coach predicts to Between The Hashmarks. “It’s just a tough draw against Jalen Carter and an improved Jordan Davis.”

While the Buccaneers have been working through adversity, Baker Mayfield has already been sacked six times, but Pro Football Focus points out that his 12.8% pressure-to-sack-rate is just 16th in the NFL, illustrating his ability to create under pressure and that Tampa’s patchwork line has, at the very least, been adequate.

Philadelphia presents a beast of an entirely different strength, though.

Jalen Carter has been a wrecking crew, through two games, with seven pressures and four quarterback hits, while Jordan Davis has made major strides, posting one sack, three hurries, and batting down a league-high three passes, in addition to blocking and returning the Rams’ game-winning field goal try for a touchdown as time expired last Sunday afternoon.

Even though the Eagles will be without edge rusher Nolan Smith, the Buccaneers’ best path towards removing the teeth of Philadelphia’s pass rush might come by doubling down on the ground game.

Tampa enters as the NFL’s seventh-ranked rushing offense, averaging 130.7 rushing yards per game and Vic Fangio’s Eagles defense has been surprisingly vulnerable against the run, surrendering 133.3 yards per game.

On an afternoon where it is expected to be 91 degrees with 68% humidity at Raymond James Stadium, the Buccaneers’ best path towards controlling the game might be getting the offensive line going downhill and grinding out a clock-controlling rushing attack.

Tampa will need more, though, from the running game than Mayfield running for his life with 116 yards this season, primarily while scrambling. Look for Mayfield to try to get the ball out especially quickly in the passing game to playmaking receivers Emeka Egbuka and potentially even a returning Chris Godwin.

Sunday may come down to whether Tampa’s line can survive long enough to let Mayfield and the run game set the tone, or whether Carter and Davis turn it into a long afternoon for the Bucs.

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