Are Donovan Smith and Tristan Wirfs the NFL's Best Tackle Duo?

They say it's a good thing if you're an offensive lineman and your name isn't being mentioned, because that means you're doing your job and you're doing it well.

While that rings true, one can also say that more people need to start talking about the duo of Donovan Smith and Tristan Wirfs, the Buccaneers' starting left and right tackles, respectively.

This is because both players are dominating their positions through the first seven weeks of the season. It shows up on the film and the numbers reflect the idea, as well.

For starters, Tampa Bay is the only team to have its two starting tackles log over 300 pass blocking snaps and both tackles also be in the top-10 when it comes to pass blocking grades, per Pro Football Focus. Both players trail only Orlando Brown Jr., who has 336 pass blocking snaps on the year, but has given up three sacks. Wirfs and Smith have combined to give up just one sack this year and that came all the way back in Week 2 against the Falcons.

Both players are in the top-10 when it comes to PFF's overall blocking grades among tackles with at least 391 total snaps on offense. Smith is the No. 4 tackle in the league, Wirfs is No. 9.

Wirfs is the No. 1 tackle in the league when it comes to pass blocking efficiency among tackles with at least 252 pass blocking snaps, while Smith comes in at No. 9. Smith is also the 13th-highest graded tackle when it comes to run blocking among tackles with at least 142 run blocking snaps.

Things have really take a turn for the better since Week 4, as well. Both players rank in the top-4 of pass blocking efficiency, they've allowed zero sacks, and just six total pressures among tackles with at least 131 pass blocking snaps over the last four weeks. No other duo has played as much and allowed as little pressures/sacks as these two players have over this time span.

The only duo that compares to Wirfs and Smith is the Los Angeles Rams' duo of Rob Havenstein and Andrew Whitworth. They've allowed fewer total pressures, just one more sack, and both are ranked in the top-8 of pass blocking efficiency over the first seven weeks of the season. Both players are in the top-7 of PFF's overall blocking grades among qualifying tackles, as well.

But Havenstein and Whitworth have not seen the field as near as much as Wirfs and Smith. The Rams' duo has played 862 combined snaps on offense while the Bucs' duo has 985. The difference is even greater in pass pro, where Smith and Wirfs have a league-leading 665 combined snaps compared to Havenstein and Whitworth's 527. Yes, it's two different types of offenses, but at the same time, it's fair to wonder what the Rams' duo's numbers will look like once they've played as much as the Bucs' duo.

And there's one more factor in all of this: The competition each duo has played against. Four of the Rams' seven opponents rank inside the top-10 of adjusted sack rate, while just one of the Bucs opponents can say that. And said opponent -the Bears- were without Akiem Hicks and Robert Quinn. In fact, the next-highest team the Bucs have faced is the Rams at No. 13 and the Bucs gave up a season-high three sacks in that game. I'm not saying the offensive line plays poorly against good opponents or anything, I'm simply pointing out the corresponding truths, here.

You can only play who you're scheduled to play and Wirfs and Smith have been dominant, which is what you want to see against lesser competition.

But the duo has clamped down the higher-end of their competition when called upon.

Firstly, there's Wirfs' Week 7 performance against Mack. Wirfs straight up dominated Mack, even if Mack was banged up. Fox Sports' Brian Baldinger provided an excellent Twitter breakdown after the game, so I'll just let him do the talking:

Here is Smith with a good rep against Aaron Donald. Yes, Donald is mostly an interior defender, however, he is versatile enough to play just about any position on the defensive line and per Sports Info Solutions, 2.5 of his 3.5 sacks on the year have come when he's lined up on the defensive right of the center, so he can do some damage from the outside.

The next two plays are Smith vs. Donald against the run. Smith does a great job of maintaining his gap and keeping Donald out of the play both times:

Smith's ability to pick up stunts/loopers has improved dramatically, as well. This really helps the Bucs when they want to lean on five-man protections:

And then I had to throw in this one of him demoralizing Leonard Floyd just for fun:

There's still a long way to go, but one could make a strong argument that Smith and Wirfs are indeed the league's best tackle duo. And the best part? They're still young and only one of them, Smith, is hitting their prime. Wirfs will be just 23-years-old when the 2022 season starts.

These two could be together for a long time, which based off these first seven weeks, is something the rest of the NFL surely doesn't want to see.

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