Until last week Ali Marpet hadn’t missed a single start for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers since moving to left guard. Playing next to left tackle Donovan Smith, one could argue he not only played his position well, but helped his left-side line-mate look better than he had in the years before the switch.
While his sacks allowed total has stayed in the same relative ballpark Smith’s numbers in hits and pressures are what have improved since Marpet moved to his left side in 2018.
Ahead of 2018, Smith had allowed 26 or more hurries in each of his first three seasons including a career high 41 in 2016.