How Much Will Bucs RT Wirfs See Burns?

Good on good. Everyone loves to see it. The NFL is all about the best-of-the-best facing off against each other to see which super athlete is truly at the pinnacle of the sport. In tomorrow’s Bucs vs. Panthers matchup NFL fans have the chance to see just such a matchup. But will they?

Bucs right tackle Tristan Wirfs has publicly announced that he will be suiting up and playing on Sunday despite re-aggravating an ankle sprain injury last week against Arizona. Wirfs is undoubtedly one of the five best offensive tackles in the game, and comfortably in the argument for top-two among right tackles with Philadelphia’s Lane Johnson. The Panthers feature on the defensive side of the ball one of the most exciting young pass rushers in the game in the form of Brian Burns. Burns vs Wirfs is exactly the type of matchup fans spend their hard-earned dollars to watch. It was a matchup recently spoken about by Jared Feinberg of Cat Scratch Blog during an appearance on the Pewter Report Podcast.

But will the fans get what they came for? If the first matchup between these two teams is any indication, the answer might be no. During the two teams’ week seven matchup Burns played the majority of his snaps on the right side of the defense lined up against Bucs left tackle Donovan Smith. Panthers head coach Steve Wilks (making his first appearance in that role with the team) opted to keep Burns on the right side 51 times as compared to only 12 times on the left.

This isn’t a completely out-of-the-box thing for the Panthers to do with Burns either. For the season he