Where Does Cody Mauch Fit On Bucs’ O-Line?

Cody Mauch predominantly played left tackle at North Dakota State, building a reputation as an athletic blocker that’ll destroy his opponents in the run game. At the Senior Bowl, Mauch impressed with a number of pancake blocks throughout the week. But caught even more attention for playing all across the offensive line at center, guard and tackle – and performing well at every position.

“I think that helped the most,” Mauch said. “Maybe some teams were looking at me just as a tackle or maybe some teams were looking at me just as a guard. My ability to go in there and prove that I can play all of those different spots absolutely opened up eyes to every team. The Senior Bowl experience was awesome and I was happy to be able to plug and play wherever they wanted me to.”

Bucs Now Have A Surplus Of Guards

Cody Mauch’s versatility is a trait that the Bucs absolutely love. It gives them options for a group that already has Robert Hainsey, Nick Leverett, Aaron Stinnie, Matt Feiler and Luke Goedeke in the mix. Tampa Bay hasn’t shied away from kicking college offensive tackles to the inside at the next level. Most notably they did it with Alex Cappa, a left tackle from Humboldt State, a couple of seasons ago. He helped the Bucs win a Super Bowl by developing into a quality right guard.

For time being Mauch doesn’t know where he’d line up, though he’s open to playing anywhere.

“I’m not too sure where they see me – that’s part of the excitement,” Mauch said. “I think, my ability to go in and play wherever. Not sure what they’re seeing in terms of position, but whatever it is, I’m ready to go.”

Jason Licht Has Plans For Cody Mauch

After Day 2 was complete, general manager Jason Licht cleared up some questions about where their newest offensive lineman will be playing. He did leave it with a caveat that things could change once the team is done with the draft and gets to training camp.

“We see him as a guard,” Licht said.  “We see him as an interior play – we’ll start him off at guard. At the Senior Bowl, he played some center, played some guard, played some right tackle, played some left tackle there. He’s played up and down the line – he did a really good job at all of them. Right now, we see him as a guard. As you know, we love guys – we’re not the only team – but we love guys that can play them all. We’ll see how he fits in.”

Who’s Playing Tackle In Tampa Bay?

Playing Cody Mauch on the interior makes sense due to the fact that he has a lot of room to grow as a pass protector coming from a run-heavy school like North Dakota State. But who is going to play tackle opposite of Tristan Wirfs, especially if Wirfs moves to left tackle?

Currently Wirfs, Brandon Walton, Michael Niese, Grant Hermanns and Justin Skule are listed on the roster as tackles. Outside of Wirfs, none of these lineman are expected to be legitimate options to get playing time with the exception of Walton, who is more of swing tackle than a starting candidate. He got some playing time last season, but that was out of necessity.

The solution comes from a player we mentioned before in Luke Goedeke, last year’s second-round pick. Goedeke started at right tackle in Week 18 on the road against the Falcons on fared very well. The Bucs believe in him enough to keep him there, and that’s where he played for seasons at Central Michigan.

“We’ll see how that goes,” Licht said. “We are excited about how Luke did for us at tackle there at the end of the year – it’s his natural position. He might be there, Tristan might move to left – I’m very confident and we all are that he’d do a good job over there. It’s kind of a work in progress. I’m certainly not going to set the depth chart here. You can talk to Todd [Bowles] whenever you get to talk to Todd and he can talk a little bit more about that.”