Tougher Sledding For Rachaad White
June 20th, 2023
As New York Giants star running back Saquon Barkley fights for a new contract, Joe keeps hearing about how the Giants often face “stacked boxes,” as in eight defenders in the area roughly a few yards off the line of scrimmage.
Barkley, per NFL NextGen Stats, saw the 8-man box on 18.98 percent of his rushes last season.
Hey, that’s Rachaad White territory! The Bucs’ new No. 1 back saw a stacked box on 18.6 percent of his carries in his 2022 rookie season.
However, Barkley’s volume of tough looks is exaggerated. He ranked 29th in the NFL when it came to seeing a stacked box, meaning 28 guys had it rougher. White ranked No. 32.
Most interesting to Joe were the numbers of four other running backs.
The first is Leonard “Playoff Lenny” Fournette. He saw a stacked box on 22.22 percent of Bucs snaps last season. That was 19th-toughest in the NFL. The second to grab Joe’s interest is Seattle top-dog rusher Kenneth Walker, their star rookie last season.
Walker ran in the run-friendly, run-first offense new Bucs offensive coordinator Dave Canales is installing. Walker saw a stacked box on 21.49 percent of attempts, 21st in the league.
Also on Joe’s radar was the rushing juggernaut in Atlanta. Rookie Tyler Allgeier led the league seeing stacked boxes on a whopping 40 percent of his carries. Allgeier grinded out 4.9 yards per carry and 1,035 yards.
Cordarrelle Patterson, now an afterthought running back in Atlanta after the team just made manbeast Bijan Robinson a first-round pick, saw stacked boxes 36.8 percent of the time. And Patterson hammered out 4.8 yards per carry and 8 touchdowns on the ground.
Joe has no doubt White will get different looks and more attention than he’s used to early this season.
Man, Joe sure hopes White, as well as the Bucs’ blocking and playcalling, find immediate improvement.
June 20th, 2023 at 1:49 pm
Addition by subtraction, goodbye spongebob!
June 20th, 2023 at 2:03 pm
This isn’t solely on the RB. It is about predictable play calling. You stack the box if you already know tendencies and it won’t leave your D in position to give up a big play. So… last year’s offense.
June 20th, 2023 at 2:07 pm
Two new elements this year: o-line and offensive game planning. Although the o-line will have a different look, I’m very optimistic about its performance. It may take a few weeks for it to gel, but I feel pretty good about its ability to open holes in the run game, particularly on the left side. With regard to scheming for run plays, Leftwich is gone. Enough said. I have a feeling White will do just fine this year. Why not be optimistic when we’re undefeated so far this season.
June 20th, 2023 at 2:22 pm
Play action pass will beat that, but you have to be have a decent run game to fool the defense.
June 20th, 2023 at 2:23 pm
We will now need to stack the box 70% of the time vs Falcons….& probably still give up nearly 5 yards per carry.
June 20th, 2023 at 2:27 pm
If Rachaad White stays healthy and starts at least 15 or 16 games – he’s likely to surpass 1500 yards in production in 2023.
Despite all the changes and uncertainty with the OLine – I believe we will see much better results up front this year – run blocking in particular should be greatly improved.
Better scheming and better, more creative play calling is going to be a breath of fresh air for our offensive players this year.
I expect our offensive point average to go from 18 up to about 23 ppg in 2023.
That along with solid to good defense gets you to 10 wins IMO.
We’ll see….
Go get em Rachaad! Its your year to shine my man.
June 20th, 2023 at 2:34 pm
No positivity whatsoever …everything hinges on the negative. Well guess what? As much as it pains me I’m going to remain positive and predict that White will have a better season than your Saquon Barkley.
June 20th, 2023 at 2:41 pm
@Dewey. You don’t need an effective run game to do play action. That’s a myth that’s been debunked. I’m not sold on White. His vision isn’t particularly good. In fairness to the RBs there weren’t many holes being opened up by the OL. They got no push last year. The OL was bad in pass protection and run blocking. I’m glad we’re getting rid of duo and moving to a zone based scheme. I do remember we ran some zone based runs last year with success. Not sure why we didn’t do it more. We also had great success with play action, yet we were in the bottom of the league in utilizing it. The QB was also one of the best ever with PA.
June 20th, 2023 at 2:46 pm
The up the gut box stack. 10 players head for the box.
June 20th, 2023 at 2:50 pm
Then a QB needs to exploit it.
If that doesn’t happen, then Vaughn will have a great season.
One of the two will keep the defenses honest, maybe Chase Edwards makes three.
June 20th, 2023 at 2:59 pm
Running behind the worst line in football cant be fun
June 20th, 2023 at 3:04 pm
Run behind left guard again and again, no need to stack the box we already know were it is going. SpongeBob was oh so predictable and the same run on first down, every first down. Defensive coordinators loved playing the Bucs last year, so predictable. Just sad, what a waste of the greatest quarterback that ever played.
June 20th, 2023 at 3:07 pm
The left side of the line will crush the opposing DL. Add Otton and Payne to the and holes will open. I
Get used to hearing 2nd and 5. It’ll be a beautiful thing.
June 20th, 2023 at 3:17 pm
@Bucsfan13
If you haven’t looked at Whites’ tape from ASU you should go check it out, they ran a ton of zone concepts and White did well enough in it in 2 seasons(1 amended) to get himself drafted day 2. Oddly enough, he was barely used in pass pro but was also ASUs’ 2nd leading receiver in that same span so I wouldn’t rule out seeing White used in the slot or motioned out of the backfield or vice versa. I think switching back to zone is what White meant by “eye candy” and I think we’ll see his ability to cut n go or use his patience to take full advantage of his blocking.
June 20th, 2023 at 3:26 pm
Stats…I thought you were not a syat guy, Joe? 😉
June 20th, 2023 at 3:27 pm
Opposing teams didn’t need to stack the box against us.
June 20th, 2023 at 3:48 pm
I looked up Fantasy Sleepers yesterday and 2 guys picked Cade Otton at TE.
He is gonna get a ton of looks off of bootlegs this year.
You have to stay disciplined in this offense as a backside defender for that reason.
If Brady hands off a ball there is no misdirection so easy to defend.
Can’t wait to see this offense and say, “That was an excellent play call”!
White will eclipse 1,500 yds from scrimmage and catch about 60 balls as well as eclipse 1,000 yards rushing.
We need to approach about 1,800 yds on the ground for this to work.
June 20th, 2023 at 4:03 pm
Getting rid of BL was an immediate upgrade. A blind monkey could call plays better. Plus he didn’t believe in mismatches, just stupid.
June 20th, 2023 at 4:06 pm
I’m not impressed with the Bucs running back group…
– R. White – mediocre
– K. Vaughn – meh
– Edmonds – meh
– Laird – below meh
– Tucker – heart issue
– Brown – Div.II All-Star
This is a pretty lackluster bunch… I hope once they give Evans his new deal the Bucs have enough money to purchase another decent running back.
If the Bucs don’t have a dominant running game in 2023 they have absolutely zero chance of being successful.
June 20th, 2023 at 4:09 pm
@Dooley. I will check it out. Thanks. I can’t believe they didn’t use White in the slot more. They also should’ve used Evans in the slot, but that’s another story lol. White could’ve been Brady’s James White lol. He’s definitely better with the ball after the catch than Lenny.
June 20th, 2023 at 4:41 pm
@MarineBuc. You’re telling me you’re not sold on Patrick Laird? Unbelievable
June 20th, 2023 at 4:44 pm
bucs fan living in georgia.. we need to be on alert for the falcons… they spent a ton on defense and drafted the top running back in the draft. they are physical and can run. not sure how physical our defense is going to be with the speed emphasis ..just sayn
June 20th, 2023 at 4:50 pm
@ Bucsfan13
LOL… Nope.
I would like to see K. Hunt or E. Elliot (at the right price) added to the squad.
D. Cook is my #1 choice but beggars can’t be choosers…
June 20th, 2023 at 5:35 pm
I highly doubt we’re getting Elliot, Hunt or Cook with our financial woes. Greenberg is good, but he’s not a magician. Besides that, we still have to sign everyone we drafted.
June 20th, 2023 at 6:19 pm
They used to record a stat that showed at which point you are touched by an opposing player. Emmit on the glory years was 3 yards past the line of scrimmage. We barely averaged 3 period
June 21st, 2023 at 3:09 am
Wow
The stacked box stat is an eye opener!
Our running game sucked worse than I thought. They didn’t need to stack the box to stop us. I really thought we would be way higher in that ranking.
Go Bucs!
June 21st, 2023 at 10:22 am
The main reason for teams stacking the box against Atlanta was that nobody feared Ridder.
June 21st, 2023 at 10:33 am
less smiling and more snarling by rachaad…could lead to a lean and mean 2000 yard from scrimmage season…
but like i said, more snarling and less of that smiley happy rookie face…
he just might have the potential to ball out
June 21st, 2023 at 6:46 pm
In reference to a post, above: Rachaad White -was- Brady’s James White by the end of last season; two standout play action plays for comeback wins by Rachaad White, just like James White & Brady used to do with the Patriots.
I’ve never seen, especially for a rookie, advance in the mental as well as the physical aspects in so short a time frame; but that’s just in my experience.
Can’t stress enough the fact that Rachaad White barely played in the first half of last season.
Really looking forward to seeing whether Baker Mayfield appreciates and can work with a receiving RB of this potential.