Bucs Gameday

Why the Bucs Should Make Bucky Irving RB1

The Bucs might need to make a change.

River Wells

Sep 22, 2024; Tampa, Florida, USA; Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Bucky Irving (7) celebrates during the first half against the Denver Broncos at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images
Sep 22, 2024; Tampa, Florida, USA; Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Bucky Irving (7) celebrates during the first half against the Denver Broncos at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images / Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images
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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have had an ailing run game for some time, and they've been doing a lot to try and fix it on the offensive line — they've added new rookie center Graham Barton and brought in guard Ben Bredeson in free agency, and they moved Tristan Wirfs to left tackle in 2023. But still, through the first three weeks, the run game hasn't established itself.

The answer might just be staring them in the face. But the team still isn't quite seeing it.

The Bucs drafted rookie running back Bucky Irving in the 2024 NFL Draft, and so far, he's been impressive in the run game. The Bucs start back Rachaad White, and he's been outrushed by Irving in all three contests the Bucs have played so far. If Tampa Bay wants to fix the run game, Irving should be getting those starting reps.

Irving is better between the tackles

The Bucs love to run Rachaad White into the line on first and second down, and quite frankly, he's pretty bad at it. White is averaging 2.1 yards per carry in the regular season, while Irving is averaging a staggering 6.2 on 25 attempts. But it gets more in-depth than that.

An interesting stat running back play is yards before contact, which indicates how many yards a running back can go before they get hit. This is somewhat dependent on the team's offensive line and the types of plays they run, but it can be a good measure of how fast a running back gets downhill, how evasive they can be and how explosive they are out of the backfield, and Bucky Irving is currently second in the NFL in this stat with 5.2 YBC/Att. He's behind Lamar Jackson in first (6.1) and Saquon Barkley in third (4.3)

Rachaad White is dead last in the entire NFL with just 0.5. Playcalls can have a slight skew on that, but it is also a testament to how much slower White gets off the ball — by the time he gets to holes, they're often closed, and he falls at the first point of contact quite a bit.

Finally, Irving is also better once he gets hit, too. Per PFF, Irving averages 4 yards after he gets hit while White averages 2.16. That means that Irving is also able to keep going a little bit longer, and that's another aspect of Irving's game so far that he does better.

That being said, there's another aspect to this that a few people have been bringing up.

Playcalling is a factor

Some have brought up that the playcalling on runs by Irving differs from simply running into the gaps like White often does. They'd point to examples like the two I have below, the two big runs that Irving sprung against the Denver Broncos on Sunday. You can see on both of these that both White and Irving are in the game — a 21 personnel that Liam Coen calls "Pony" — and that Irving is getting the football from outside the backfield:

These are indeed sometimes a bit different from what White gets. But Irving isn't only thriving in these scenarios — he can also hit the hole and get upfield when running through the gaps and out of the backfield, too. He did so here against the Commanders, where Irving finds the hole quickly and decisively gets downhill fast to bust off a pretty nice run.

Here's another good example. Irving takes this ball out of the backfield after Mayfield smartly switches the direction of the run, but you can see how quickly and aggressively he hits this hole to get to the second level and pick up some yardage. Justin Skule is able to just get there in time, but Irving's explosiveness and attack makes that window achievable, too.

White can struggle with this, going down upon hitting the hole, and a lot of that is reflected in his poor yards per carry. He's occasionally quite indecisive in the backfield, and a combination of his lack of vision and poor burst speed can get him tangled up, especially when Tampa Bay's zone run blocking is as rough as it is. This problem isn't helped, though, by running him in zone.

There's also an obvious solution based off of this point, too. If Liam Coen likes to be more creative when Bucky Irving is the ballcarrier as opposed to Rachaad White, and that is successful, then perhaps the team should do that more often. That would still put Irving at the forefront, as what we've seen from him has simply been far more productive than what White has done this year.

White may not be getting as much help as he could, but I still believe that Irving does a lot more with the same offensive line and a similar number of attempts. Todd Bowles did mention in his press conference on Monday that Irving is set to get more snaps, so we could see a better comparison going forward.

READ MORE: Bucs Had Wrong Mentality in Broncos Loss 

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River Wells
RIVER WELLS

River Wells is a sports journalist from St. Petersburg, Florida, who has covered the Tampa Bay Buccaneers since 2023. He graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Florida in 2021. You can follow him on Twitter @riverhwells.

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