Tampa Bay Buccaneers Select OT Tristan Wirfs At Pick Thirteen

The pick is in! The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have selected offensive tackle Tristan Wirfs out of Iowa to help bolster the offensive line and give Tom Brady more protection.

After seeing offensive tackles go off the board at number four (Andrew Thomas - Giants), number ten (Jedrick Wills Jr. - Browns), and number eleven (Mekhi Becton - Jets) the Buccaneers decided to move up with the 49ers to ensure they could get one of the final “big four”. In doing so, they sent San Francisco picks fourteen and 117 in exchange for picks thirteen and 245.

Wirfs is 6’5”, 320lbs and he made a living in the difficult trenches of the Big Ten.

NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein said this in Wirfs’ draft profile;

Right tackle with elite body type and freaky testing potential who might fall victim to elevated expectations based upon traits and Iowa pedigree. He has tremendous core strength and moves smoothly, over-sets and isn’t the explosive drive-blocker former Iowa star tackle Brandon Scherff was. Wirfs has tools to handle gap-blocking duties while thriving in outside zone. If Wirfs can learn to play inside out and add a more effective jump-set into his repertoire, he could take a big step forward. Consistency of play could take some time, but he has the ability to become a good starter at either right tackle or guard.

It seems a bit steep of a price to pay to move up one spot, but the 49ers were certainly entertaining other offers and the Buccaneers had to come away from round one with one of the top four offensive tackles. They absolutely got that thanks to the aggressiveness of Jason Licht and Bruce Arians to go get their guy.

Here was our draft profile on Wirfs from just two weeks ago.