Bucs Should Consider Switch Back To LG Matt Feiler

Feiler was far from perfect during his time on the field. Pro Football Focus had him with a 54.7 blocking grade over 386 snaps. His run blocking was his Achilles heel (52.2), but he was a solid pass blocker. Most fans will remember his five pressure-allowed game against the Falcons in Week 7 and scream “How could you say he was solid? He was horrendous in that game!”

And they would be right.

Feiler was bad at home against the Falcons. He was also injured for three of those late pressures while facing a very talented interior group comprised of David Onyemata and Grady Jarrett. Feiler had no business being out on the field for the Bucs’ final drive where he was largely responsible for Baker Mayfield’s inability to lead a touchdown drive at the end of the game.

The Bucs should have put someone, anyone, out there in his stead. But Feiler tried to iron-man his way to the end of the game and cost the team.

Enter Aaron Stinnie

That injury would knock Matt Feiler out for several weeks and Aaron Stinnie would step in his stead. Stinnie had a fantastic debut against Buffalo and followed it up with another good performance against the Texans as the Bucs set their season-high scoring tally with 37 points. But following those games, Stinnie has been on the steady decline.

An uptick in the Bucs’ run game has had a lot of people conflating correlation with causation believing that Stinnie has been the reason Tampa Bay’s run game has improved, and that is disingenuous at best. Stinnie has had streaks of good play such as his fourth quarter against the Falcons when the Bucs’ entire line took over.

But the reality is Stinnie’s larger sample size of play has been below that of Feiler’s. His overall run block grade, per PFF, is not much higher than Feiler’s at 59.3. But the larger issue is that of Stinnie’s play in pass protection. It has been suspect since that Texans game and over the past two weeks has been downright bad.

The six pressures he allowed against the Jaguars were nearly as bad as Feiler’s seven against the Falcons. He then followed it up with another six pressures allowed against the Saints. A couple of visual examples of his rough game as evidence.

Matt Feiler Gives Bucs Best Chance To Win Moving Forward

Aaron Stinnie’s arrival to the starting lineup eventually coincided with an improved run game and then the Bucs went on a four-game win streak. And many people may say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

But here’s the thing. That position is currently broken.

And Matt Feiler may not fully fix it.

But he is a much bigger Band-Aid than Stinnie (both figuratively and literally).

Feiler allowed 12 pressures over 244 pass block reps. That’s a 4.9% pressure rate allowed. But Stinnie has now allowed 29 pressures over 404 pass block reps. That’s a 7.2% pressure rate allowed. That’s a big deal.

The Bucs have an opportunity to make a change that could have an appreciable positive impact on the best part of the product they put on the field. And they should be bold and do it.