Buccaneers tackle Tristan Wirfs can stop preparing to play both the left side and the right side.
The three-year right tackle is moving to the other side.
Via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times, Wirfs officially will be making the flip from right to left.
It’s happening because the Bucs used none of their 2023 draft picks on a new left tackle. As Stroud notes, they could have had Oklahoma Anton Harrison with selection No. 19, but the Bucs opted instead for Pitt defensive tackle Calijah Kancey.
The Buccaneers have picked up the fifth-year option on Wirfs. He’ll have up to two seasons on the left side before becoming a free agent or being franchise tagged in Tampa.
“It just sometimes doesn’t go the way you want,” Buccaneers V.P. of player personnel John Spytek said Saturday, via Stroud. “We all would’ve loved to add tackles, but I don’t want to lose enough games every year to be up there where those tackles typically go. We’ve got guys we feel good with. We’ve got guys who we know can compete.”
Luke Goedeke, a second-round pick in 2022, is likely to become the right tackle for 2023. He spent most of his rookie season at left guard.
For Wirfs, he’ll make the change he faced making when he was drafted in 2020.
“It just feels awkward at first but once you settle in it feels fine,” Wirfs said at the time. “It kinda feels like wiping your butt with your other hand. It just feels a little awkward at first, but you get used to it.”
Wirfs has four months to get used to using that other hand.