Bucky Irving’s Workload
September 25th, 2025
Bellcow back.
Let’s be real: Who doesn’t like Bucky Irving? Who doesn’t want to see Bucky carrying the rock?
The Bucs’ second-year running back is pure excitement packed into a 5-10, 195-pound frame. Bucky isn’t exactly Derrick Henry or Mike Alsott. Joe would think the Bucs want him on a pitch count so Bucky isn’t fried by the end of the season.
Or worse: Fried before his contract is up with the Bucs.
Last week Bucky had 25 carries. They weren’t always easy. A glance at his greenish-stained white Bucs uniform in the fourth quarter against the Jets said it all.
But it doesn’t appear that Bucs offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard is all that concerned with how many carries Bucky gets. Joe asked Grizzard today if Bucky toting the rock 25 times a game is sustainable.
Grizzard told Joe that Bucky’s workload will depend on how each game transpires. So no, it doesn’t sound as if Grizzard has Bucky on any sort of pitch count.
“I think each week [Bucky’s carries] is determined on how the game’s going,” Grizzard said. “He knows we need him and [if] he goes, 25 [carries] or if it’s 15 or it might need to be 30, whatever it takes to get that win that week.
“Then [after win, we will] be able to adjust off of that.”
It sounds like Bucky is the Bucs’ bellcow back. If the Bucs can win with Bucky only getting a dozen carries, great. If the game is tight or the Bucs are behind, and Bucky is moving the ball, the Bucs are going to feed him.
Joe guesses Grizzard thinks if the Bucs want to keep Bucky’s carries low, then the Bucs have to build a comfortable lead and the defense can’t puke it away.
September 25th, 2025 at 4:07 pm
I still think r white should be our #1 back he’s more suited and better at pass blocking l love Bucky to death but he still got the production last year being the change of pace back for us. I think he will
Be more deadly using him that way.
September 25th, 2025 at 4:12 pm
Define a comfortable lead for the Bucs. I have been a Bucs fan for 49 years. The Bucs could have a 28 point lead with 5 minutes left in the 4th quarter and I would still be sweating bullets. The Bucs/Colts game from 10+ years ago comes to mind.
September 25th, 2025 at 4:13 pm
Rachaad needs more touches. He’s running best of career and looks at least as effective as Bucky.
September 25th, 2025 at 4:14 pm
Scotty..
Heard.
September 25th, 2025 at 4:16 pm
HERBIEBUC I agree White should be 1
September 25th, 2025 at 4:19 pm
I still think we dont run bucky or r.white enough!!!!!!
GO BUCS!!!!
September 25th, 2025 at 4:23 pm
So do we actually have a great RB room, or is Bucky all we’ve got? There’s a rumor going around that they have three more.
September 25th, 2025 at 4:24 pm
I feel like in this day and age, you need to run RB by committee. I love Bucky! RW#1 is great pass catching and quite honestly has ben a beast so far this year with his vision running uphill through the holes. In previous years he tried “dancing” too much rather than one cut and punch. He is definitely a good back which is why, I think we should extend him now rather than wait until he may become a free agent. Who cares whom is designated RB#1 and RB#2. I thing RW#1 is a perfect complimentary back to Bucky. I think Bucky has shown him how to hit the whole to be honest cause last years RB#1RW is not this years RB#1RW. Maybe I am crazy, but it is either RW#1 is realizing this is a contract year and needs to put some items on tape or he has learned to quit dancing. Either way we should use some of out Cap $$ to extend White…he is an excellent pass rusher and an excellent receiver out of the backfield. Couple those things with his new ability to “hit the hole” with a vengeance(that we haven’t seen in years past) Sign the man. Bucky is smallish and won’t be able to be a workhorse for too many years, but if we couple them and feed the horse in a particular game that is “dominating” it could potentially prologue both of their respective careers. Thoughts? Please bring them!
September 25th, 2025 at 4:25 pm
Correction: I think RW#1
September 25th, 2025 at 4:35 pm
@Scotty in Fat Antonio
Trust me..losing to the colts that night with a 28 point lead (I believe) was crazy. I went to bed that night thinking the game was over. We had Brian Kelly get hurt and Payton destroyed our Cover 2 with none other than James Mungro, Ricky Williams, and of course Marvin Harrison.
Let’s just say when I woke the next morning I needed a little Whiskey in mu coffee.
September 25th, 2025 at 4:37 pm
Rushing 25 times I have no problems with, but 2 yards per carry with 2 other capable backs and not using them I attribute to Grizz being a novice of an OC.
25 carries for 66 yards, with a long run of 16 yards. Meaning the other 24 carries the “bellcow” was crackin’em for 2 yard a pop. That’s pathetic. This isn’t a popularity contest and that far from having the hot hand.
“So Joe guesses the way Grizzard looks at it is, if the Bucs want to keep Bucky’s carries low, then the Bucs have to build a comfortable lead, and the defense can’t puke away the lead.“
This has yet to happen this season, so speaking as if this is some common occurrence for this team when we were going into the half of the last game having given up 6 points and only score 13 is hilarious. That’s not “comfortable” as a lead, if anything it at best doing just enough to say you have a lead. Thank goodness for that defense score to give us the cushion on the scoreboard while the offense just ran plays and kicked FG with no TDs to stand on.
September 25th, 2025 at 4:40 pm
White needs to play more. Griz needs to throw to the rbs more and omg Otten has only caught 3 balls WTF
September 25th, 2025 at 4:44 pm
I remember Coach Mckay saying “The ball isn’t that heavy”. 🙂
September 25th, 2025 at 4:52 pm
My understanding is that Tucker is not a better blocker than Irving in spite of their size difference. That could be why we do not see him that often on offence. Any comments, anyone?
September 25th, 2025 at 4:54 pm
Very surprised 44 hasn’t gotten any touches WHERE IS TUCKER!!!! must be saving him for the saints again 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣.
September 25th, 2025 at 4:55 pm
Jody McKinzie Says:
September 25th, 2025 at 4:35 pm
@Scotty in Fat Antonio
Trust me..losing to the colts that night with a 28 point lead (I believe) was crazy. I went to bed that night thinking the game was over. We had Brian Kelly get hurt and Payton destroyed our Cover 2 with none other than James Mungro, Ricky Williams, and of course Marvin Harrison.
Let’s just say when I woke the next morning I needed a little Whiskey in mu coffee.
Same here. I can remember that game and going to bed thinking it was game over for the Colts. Woke up turned on 620 WDAE and shouted “WTF” at the top of my lungs. My wife thought someone had died.
September 25th, 2025 at 5:09 pm
Scotty,
Hard to believe that was 22 years ago. Year after we won the first SB. That season was tough. Losing to the panthers because we had an extra point blocked, then that Colts feriocious come back engineered by P Manning. It was a weird season. Classic SB hangover syndrome.
September 25th, 2025 at 5:22 pm
“My understanding is that Tucker is not a better blocker than Irving in spite of their size difference.”
This is fan ficition, this sentiment manifested itself on the internet not the football field and nobody from the Bucs has come out to say anything remotely close to this. In the abscence of having a valid explaination as to why we don’t see Tucker often fans just cooked that one up.
I remember the first presser after our bye last week(Joe should remember this), Coen was asked about why we didn’t see Tucker more after the NO game and he went on a tangent that last about 45 seconds and shrugged his shoulders and basically said it’s hard to rotate 3 RBs.
Gave him a pass with him being a first time OC then, I guess I have to give Grizz the same grace, because I’m sure gameplanning takes up a lot of their time. So they can’t experiment with personnel usage in between making sure they have everything else lined up and ready to go, but still.
Don’t want until we HAVE to use Tucker.
September 25th, 2025 at 5:25 pm
We closed the old Veterans Stadium with a win on the road against the Iggles in the playoffs that sent us to the Super Bowl and then we opened their new digs at Lincoln Financial Field giving them a 17-0 whupping on MNF against the hated Iggs to open the following season.
September 25th, 2025 at 5:38 pm
I want to see Tucker AND Culp- the fastest players at their respective positions occasionally. They are perfect for catching an opponent off-guard.
September 25th, 2025 at 5:45 pm
Scotty, that Colts game was 22 years ago. time flies. I remember the Bucs were playing the old LA Rams and had a 23-0 halftime lead. Ended up losing 26-23
September 25th, 2025 at 6:00 pm
Agree with Warren Brooks Lynch 100%; Bucky’s performance in 24 of his 25 carries shows 2.1 YPC average. That’s not a Bell Cow performance.
Bucky’s now got 56 carries for 174 yds rushing … 3.1 YPC (with the longest being 16 yds) with 1 TD (receiving) & 5 total 1st downs. Rachaad has less than a third that many with 17 carries for 91 yds … 5.4 YPC (with the longest also being 16 yds) with 1 TD rushing & 5 total 1st downs.
And on receiving, Bucky has 14 targets with 14 catches for 91 yds, while Rachaad only has 4 targets with 4 catches for only 5 yds.
Poor Tucker only has 1 run for 2 yds, and 0 targets, even though he’s suited up for all 3 games.
Bucs have had 210 total offensive snaps. Bucky has been on the field for 154 of those (73.3%), Rachaad for 59 of those (28.1%) and Tucker for a whopping 3 snaps (1.4%).
Grizz might want to at least consider making some adjustments in his use of RBs.
September 25th, 2025 at 6:13 pm
Running Bucky 25 times a game seems crazy to me.
Unless he’s having a monster day or the other RBs are having bad days.
At that rate he’ll never make it to his second contract.
We have a three-headed monster in our RB room.
Grizz needs to sit down with his playbook and scheme up some plays for Rachàad and Sean.
September 25th, 2025 at 6:14 pm
Bucky’s average yards per rush is terrible this year (so far).
He’s been good in the passing game, but our running game is bottom-tier thru 3 games (if we don’t count Baker’s scrambles).
September 25th, 2025 at 6:17 pm
You are spot on DR! With having multiple receivers out and depending on the run game even more we should exhaust all options to make sure we are operating most efficiently & right now Bucky’s 3 yards per carry is not efficient. After Sean Tucker had a nice preseason game against the Titans Todd Bowles said,
“Sean brings us another explosive runner, he’s a game breaker for us, really. He’s got very good contact balance, he can break a lot of tackles, he can naturally find holes. He’s very fast but he looks so smooth doing it that you really can’t tell until he gets into the open field.”
Bowles said he has been telling his offensive assistant to get Tucker more involved, even before White’s injury.
“I keep telling the guys on offense, we’ve got to give him the ball more,” Bowles said.
IDK what’s going on but maybe somebody should remind Bowles of his statement. A guy who went off for 192 yards in a game not seeing any carries with our current situation is just inexcusable, I sure hope it doesn’t start costing us games because we can’t just slam the ball against that Eagles defensive front 25 times.
September 25th, 2025 at 6:23 pm
Ride who has the hot hand
September 25th, 2025 at 6:38 pm
Defense Rules, that shakes out to a 3.7 yards per touch and we’ve got a game coming up with 2 behemoths anchoring that Eagles interior D-Line.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a knock on Bucky as a player or what he provides as an offensive weapon. My thing is that last season we only asked him to tote the rock 20 or more times on only 2 occasions. There’s been no loss or drop off in the other talent to try to squeeze that out of Bucky this year for what seems like “just because”. Grizz & Skip Pete the run game coordinator need to iron that out, we’ll need Buck as much in November & December than needing to overuse him in just the 3rd game of the year.
September 25th, 2025 at 7:02 pm
Joe seems to have bet big on Rachad White this year. Because why would you worry about the workload? He will play however the coaches think is the best for the team.
September 25th, 2025 at 7:48 pm
Scotty/SA: 46 year diehard Bucs fan. You bet I remember that Bucs-Colts game. Dungy had come on board as the Colts’ HC with the stipulation that their offensive group including P. Manning not be changed. I watched that disaster at my sister’s casa in LA. I can not believe the total turnaround of this franchise. 3-0, walking wounded up the wazoo, and we and a lot of NFL fans raised cain about that ref sh1t Sunday. It sure wasn’t like that all those years ago. We will win Sunday. 4-0!!
September 25th, 2025 at 7:56 pm
That was a great first question Steve, thanks for that. I was watching the game in a bar here in North Carolina and that very same thing worries me. Bucky definitely is not an every down back. With all of our injuries this year you would think Shawn Tucker would be carrying part of that rock. Sometimes you need to mix it up with a bruising back and protecting your most precious assets. If he gets injured during this barrage of carries only one person is at fault, our rookie play caller.
September 25th, 2025 at 7:58 pm
Warren Brooks Lynch … ‘that shakes out to a 3.7 yards per touch and we’ve got a game coming up with 2 behemoths anchoring that Eagles interior D-Line.’
OK I’m officially confused. Bucky has 56 carries for 174 yards, which comes out to 3.1 YPC. What’s the 3.7 yards per touch that you referenced? Even more confused about the ‘2 behemoths anchoring the Eagles interior DLine’. The Eagles run defense is surrendering an average of 5.1 YPC over their 3 games and ranks #24. That’s worse than the Falcons (#10), the Texans (#16) and the Jets (#23) are doing at Run Defense.
September 25th, 2025 at 8:02 pm
I love this picture. Great photo.
September 25th, 2025 at 8:09 pm
Tucker! Tucker! Tucker!
WE NEED TUCKER.
GIVE HIM SOME CARRIES, GENIUS GRIZZ THE WHIZZ (EXTREME SARCASM)
September 25th, 2025 at 8:14 pm
We don’t have our starting oline no one’s is going to make much of a difference until there is some stability on the oline and most of are starters are back.
September 25th, 2025 at 8:22 pm
Oh, Defense rules,
Runs and receptions.
Jordan Davis & Jalen Carter is like lining up against 2 Quinnen Williams who almost single-handedly stuff our run efforts all games this past game.
September 25th, 2025 at 8:28 pm
Amazing that we are debating over 3 solid backs. Good problem to have.
But Bucky is about to break out when our Oline starts to solidify.
September 25th, 2025 at 8:28 pm
Hit submit too early, but on a per game basis DR they’re allowing less rush yards per game each week.
Wk1-158 rush yards
Wk2 – 122 rush yards
Wk3 – 86 rush yards
Week 1 they didn’t have Jalen Carter after the got bounced out of the game, and in my option those averages will fall gradually as long as the Philly front stays healthy.
September 25th, 2025 at 8:43 pm
I am not sure what the confusion is with Tucker not getting as many looks is. It has been stated many times by the Bucs that Tucker does not pick up a blitzing LB as well as White or Irving. That is a liability regardless of his running talent. He is getting better but still a liability in their eyes.
September 25th, 2025 at 9:12 pm
Greg, who from the Bucs has said that?
September 25th, 2025 at 10:01 pm
Scotty,
I was at that game and it was insane. Marvin Harrison and Peyton Manning just had us for lunch and dinner. What a memory or was it a nightmare
September 25th, 2025 at 10:04 pm
Bucky hasn’t looked as quick as last year but I give him a break because the Bucs offensive line hasn’t been exactly busting open holes open for him. Also the opponents all have had exceptional defensive lines that at times have dominated some of the Buc blockers.
Losing Mauch is a big deal in the running game and without Goedke its a weaker right side so running in that direction is tough sledding.
Griz will need to do some creative playcalling to protect Baker, he has been taking too many hits this year and its only week 3.
September 25th, 2025 at 10:42 pm
When/if the offensive line is playing better, and Baker has more than 0.3 seconds to pass the ball, it should lead to more passing – and less carries for Bucky. For now, I think it’s fine, but over the course of the season, you don’t want to keep the workload that high.
September 26th, 2025 at 9:15 am
Many commenting on how Bucky’s YPC are way down serm to be forgetting that he’s running behind a practice squad O-line. Yes, incorporating White more will help, but the biggest change will come when we get our big men back.