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Bucky Irving And Production After Contact

June 23rd, 2025

Leader of YAC.

One thing that drove Joe nuts about Rachaad White’s running (or not running) was his lousy YAC numbers.

White was dreadful at breaking tackles and seemingly worse at avoiding defenders. He’d miss a wide-ass open hole Joe could drive his Bill Currie Ford F-150 through to get decent yardage.

(In the open field on pass plays, White was dynamite.)

Bucky Irving had no such issues. It seemed he thrived on bouncing off defenders and making dudes miss. In fact, per the crowd at The 33rd Team, no back was better at YAC than the talented Bucs rookie.

Bucky led the NFL with over four yards per carry after contact. That’s impressive for such a smallish dude.

Joe is stoked for what Bucky could do behind such a good offensive line after a year of experience.

This Bucs offense ought to be a lot of fun again.

 

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10 Responses to “Bucky Irving And Production After Contact”

  1. Rod Munch Says:
    June 23rd, 2025 at 1:31 am

    White improved his yards after contact from 2.3 to 3.1 – it helps when you’re not just running up the middle in predictable situations.

    Really cannot overstate how good that Coen scheme was. Lets just hope boy genius is as smart as everyone says he is and doesn’t break the offense the way Leftwich broke the offense after Arians retired, as Byron was going to show everyone how smart he was and how Bruce was holding him back.

    To be clear I’m not down on Gizzard at all, just concerned with the media fluff around him talking about how he’s a genius – young guys in that situation get themselves in a ton of trouble since they think they got something to prove. Hopefully that’s not the case, and I certainly think Bowles will be all over that – regardless of my issues with Bowles awful zone defense, he’s been pretty amazing at picking OCs.

  2. Todd Says:
    June 23rd, 2025 at 6:37 am

    YAC > YBC

  3. JimBobBuc Says:
    June 23rd, 2025 at 7:41 am

    The YBC leaders all run behind elite OL’s, Philly, Ravens, and Detroit. The Buc’s OL was very good last year, can they become elite this year?

  4. Warren Brooks Lynch Says:
    June 23rd, 2025 at 7:53 am

    Look at Cody Mauch!

  5. PSL Bob Says:
    June 23rd, 2025 at 7:54 am

    I love watching that play against NY when Baker runs down field and throws a block for Bucky. Little wonder Mayfield’s teammates will fight to the death for him.

  6. dumboldguy Says:
    June 23rd, 2025 at 7:59 am

    @rodd_munch

    I share the same concerns. Coen’s scheme was better than any I’ve witnessed for the Bucs. IMO, he’s elite and we will miss him and we can only hope Grizzard took notes and can be as good or almost as good. The Bucs letting Coen walk will likely be seen in a few years as a historically bad decision.

  7. ballwasher61 Says:
    June 23rd, 2025 at 8:08 am

    A team cannot hold any coach back from taking any job that is an upgrade over his current position, the Bucs didn’t let him walk. There are only 32 HC jobs in the world so I understand the desire, one he had since he started coaching, but one should be careful which team they choose. That situation in Jax is like when Lovie was hired here then Licht after him. I think Grizz will be just fine, maybe even better but the yard stick to measuring better should be well thought out. I would say maybe the offense becomes more polished as the year goes on. With the talent and the mind set it could be the best in the NFL this year.

  8. heyjude Says:
    June 23rd, 2025 at 8:22 am

    Loving the Bucs Vault play!

  9. Esteban85 Says:
    June 23rd, 2025 at 5:00 pm

    Dumboldguy- not sure how much the Bucs “let Coen walk” as opposed to he slithered his way out of town in the cover of darkness. Seems to me the Bucs did all they could to keep the guy but forgot to look at his track record of bouncing around taking the best job available from year to year. Great OC no doubt but not an ounce of loyalty in that fella.

    On the other hand, I think Grizz will be just fine based on the fact that our third down production was the best in the league and that was his job last season. Super stoked to see young Bucky shine as our best RB. He’s a stud and now he will have a more cohesive OL. GO BUCS

  10. Rod Munch Says:
    June 24th, 2025 at 2:07 am

    dumboldguy Says:
    I share the same concerns. Coen’s scheme was better than any I’ve witnessed for the Bucs.

    ==========

    Oh yeah, without a doubt. Said it many times, but all you had to do was listen to other teams podcasts after we played them – talking about the ones with pro-players – and they raved about how good the play calling was and how the defense was kept completely off balance because the Bucs weren’t being predictable and had so much movement on offense that the defenses never really got comfortable.

    With that said, the Bucs really couldn’t do anything to keep Coen. They made him the highest paid OC, and then the Jags tripled that number per year, and doubled the contract length – no one in their right mind turns that down. Additionally, while I’d have been totally for making Coen the head coach, because of the NFL’s racist Rooney Rule, there was no way to make that happen. The Bucs would have had to fire Bowles first, without hiring Bowles, then went through a sham hiring process to select Coen – and in the meantime a team like the Jags could have came in and picked him off. Keep in mind that if that situation occurred, you’d have a ton of players and coaches in Tampa really mad at Coen seemingly to have stabbed Bowles in the back – and Bowles is, by all reports, very well liked. I don’t really see how the Bucs could pull that off coming off a playoff appearance, it’s not like firing Lovie who lost a ton of games and Dirk was an old coach who wasn’t in demand as a HC.