Bucky Irving Added 10 Pounds; Good Or Bad?
August 23rd, 2026
Bucs running back Bucky Irving checked in at the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine at 192 pounds at 5 feet 9 inches tall.
What exactly Irving weighed during the 2024 and 2025 seasons is unclear. But, per the WFLA-TV broadcast last night of the Bucs-Chiefs preseason game, Irving has added 10 pounds to his frame. Joe presumes game analyst Jon Gruden meant the weight gain was since the end of last season.
Joe can’t call this a positive or a negative, but from Joe’s experience, running backs tend to do better when they cut weight.
Former Bucs running back Rachaad White dropped about 9 pounds before last season (221 to 212) to improve his explosiveness and shiftiness. He averaged 4.3 yards per carry last season, nearly a yard more than Irving. It felt like White’s best season running the ball, especially considering the Bucs’ offensive line was a mess.
Entering the 2018 season, Peyton Barber, also a former Bucs starting running back, cut about 12 pounds and had his breakout year with 254 touches for 963 yards.
Just prior to the 2015 season, former Bucs head coach Dirk Koetter reported on WDAE radio that running back Doug Martin lost 20 pounds to get to about 205 pounds. Martin responded with a first team All-Pro season. He was electric.
Joe hopes Irving is playing at a weight that can bring him back to his 2024 form. He sure looked sharp in a few carries last night.
August 23rd, 2026 at 5:54 am
Probably some of it is just growing up more from college. Being able to full time workout in an NFL training center. Ten pounds is nothing, sounds natural.
August 23rd, 2026 at 5:57 am
Did it look like a problem? Silly question Joe do better
August 23rd, 2026 at 6:40 am
He’ll need those 10 pounds over 17 games to absorb all that impact. But Bucky can’t be run like Caddy, he has to split carries. He can’t take the wear and tear.
August 23rd, 2026 at 6:42 am
It’s ok if it’s muscle
August 23rd, 2026 at 6:43 am
I’d only be concerned if after putting on his jersey, he asked somebody “does this make me look fat?”
August 23rd, 2026 at 6:57 am
From what I saw last night, it was definitely good that he added 10 pounds. He was moving people like Rashad did last year. Anytime you can gain some weight and still keep your quickness. It’s a good thing.
August 23rd, 2026 at 7:25 am
Hopefully Missouri running back Ahmad Hardy somehow falls into our lap next year. That young man runs like the defense owes him money. 😂
Go Bucs! 🏴☠️
August 23rd, 2026 at 7:42 am
He looked good
August 23rd, 2026 at 7:45 am
I have no idea
All … I remember from the Cobra Commanders playoff game from 2 seasons ago ….. Bucky Broke away … only to be caught from behind… he ran out of gas
I know it wasn’t from not being fit, because I know he is shredded….. but I don’t if putting on weight is going to solve the gas problem!!
August 23rd, 2026 at 7:53 am
This is great. To protect his shoulder.
He looked good last night. Tucker also looked leaner and less “boxey”
Tucker looked more flexible last night. More fluid.
Josh Williams looked legit. I love LSU players.
Pyburn has an NFL body. He looked like Romanowski. À bad white boy.
Kamara looked like a MAN.
I have never seen a Bucs team this deep.
Except for CB. We are still very thin at CB.
FYI: Licht and Bowles are amazing at drafting and developing DBs.
Carlton Davis, SMB, and Dean are still starting in the NFL.
MJ Stewart is still a special teams killer for the Texans.
Whitehead and Mike Edward had great careers.
Zion McCollum was grabbed in the 5th round.
Parish is a 3rd round gem.
Tykee Smith. À 3rd round starter. Winfield. Pro Bowler.
Imagine we had never broken up thé trio of Davis, Dean and SMB?
August 23rd, 2026 at 7:54 am
Good!
Because he was not a NFL fast running back. Yeah he is plenty fast to play running back but he has been brought down at the end of long runs by DB’s at 3 times in his short career. He muscle and bulk will help prevent injury.
August 23rd, 2026 at 7:56 am
LISTEN Joe’s
I have never been Joe warned in BOLD TYPE about EVER posting ANYTHING against Joes rules!
Twice in the past 24 hours my posts have been in MODERATION!
August 23rd, 2026 at 9:11 am
I though be looked pretty good. All I know for sure is I don’t want to see hide not hair of him in Jacksonville next Friday night. Well maybe the kickers.
August 23rd, 2026 at 9:56 am
I think the added weight if muscle will help him be more durable. 192 lbs is pretty light getting hit by men 250+ every carry.
September is so far away, LFG!
August 23rd, 2026 at 10:27 am
10 pounds of muscle can’t hurt. His frame can’t carry much more than that though.
August 23rd, 2026 at 10:30 am
BI7 looked good last night. Small sample size… Bring on September!
August 23rd, 2026 at 12:37 pm
Bucky should have his best season yet barring any injury and if he gets great blocking up front.The bucs could be top Superbowl contender’s if our quarterbacks & defense e secondary don’t blow it again.
August 23rd, 2026 at 1:24 pm
For a 23 yr old (just turned 24) professional athlete to add 10 pounds of muscle is pretty easy and won’t change his quickness or speed. He looked super quick and elusive in his limited carries last night.
I’m not sure how comparing bigger, slower and less elusive backs to Bucky means anything. Some guys needs to lose a bit if weight while others need to bulk up a bit.
I’m not sure how that can be a “bad” thing.
August 23rd, 2026 at 2:13 pm
Where’s gainwell?
August 23rd, 2026 at 2:24 pm
As fragile as Bucky was last season, you can only hope the extra weight will keep him on the field and still be elusive not on the sideline hurt.
He looked good for the few plays he ran last night, but it is hold your breath and wait and see with him if he can actually last and be depended on like the first season.
Ever since his first start in late 2024 and last year, Bucky has not looked like Bucky that was really special. Check out from the first game he was the official starter, and actually watch the games, he has not been Mr all world that he was before his first start.
He reminded me sometimes during his first season of Warrick Dunn, but Warrick Dunn proved to be durable, and able to stay on the field with the Bucs and Falcons. Hope for the best with Bucky.
GO BUCS!!!!
August 23rd, 2026 at 6:15 pm
For Todd Wright and has fantasy podcast:
Bucky Irving 2024 Advanced Rushing Metrics: Yards After Contact / Attempt: ~3.93 – 4.03 yards (Ranked #1 in the NFL among qualified running backs)Total Yards After Contact: 609 yards (Next Gen Stats) to 834 yards (Pro Football Focus)Forced Missed Tackles: 53 to 62 broken/missed tackles on the groundOverall PFF Grade: 90.8 (Highest-graded rookie of the 2024 class)
In 2025, Bucky was injured which was why he missed several games and had to have off-season shoulder surgery. I expect a fully rejuvenated Bucky this year shredding NFL defenses again as long as he and the O-Line stay healthy. His receiving metrics are even higher than Gainwell’s, too. He could just as easily be a steal this year!
August 23rd, 2026 at 8:01 pm
In general, like Joe said, you like when your RB’s drop weight – but here’s your pro-weight gain scenario.
Warrick Dunn was drafted with a listed weight of 176 pounds – but bulked up to a playing weight of 187 after a few years in the NFL, and certainly it didn’t slow him down or hurt his production. And Bucky is a lot more similar to Dunn than the other guys listed.
As for last year – Bucky looked good when he got any sort of blocking, which wasn’t often. That mixed with the ultra predictable play calling by Grizz lead to Bucky, very rarely, having any sort of running lanes. When I’d go back and watch film, I didn’t see Bucky missing reads – I saw him making the first guy, and often even the 2nd guy miss, only to have a third guy get to him while he was still in the backfield. Much like what happened to the Muscle Hamster over and over again – people would complain about his average per carry, meanwhile if you watched the tape you’d see him have to break 3 tackles just to get a 1 yard gain.
August 23rd, 2026 at 8:15 pm
Yeah Munch, that’s why offensive lines are so important to the success of running backs. The Bucs starting O-line is somewhere between third and first best in the NFL. So it’s huge to have them all in with a healthy Bucky. Suddenly those tackles he is dodging/breaking are 6,8,15 yards downfield instead of in the backfield. And you end up with huge runs as a result! So if his metrics go back to like they were in 2024 and the O-line is playing fully healthy we should have a super nasty running game. I have my fingers crossed and wouldn’t mind having Bucky as an RB2 or 3 or he’d be an especially excellent flex play.
August 23rd, 2026 at 9:06 pm
Stpetematt – Yeah, if the offensive line can stay healthy, it will be huge. But also, in 2024, you can’t discount how good the play calling from Coen was. He used so much misdirection, and would break tendencies early in games, so defenses normally felt off balance and couldn’t just sit on the run, like they could in 2023 and 2025. As for Zac… I’m still hoping he watched and studied that 2024 tape, and just mimics what Coen was doing. If he did so, he’ll be a HC candidate next year. But I also said the same thing about Grizz last year, and that moron, instead of being a parrot, talked about how he was going to improve the offense by brining in more college concepts, and having Baker throw deep more often. Grizz really was a moron and the Bucs would have been better off just training an AI on Coen’s play calling and then just had it call the plays.
August 24th, 2026 at 5:25 pm
With the whole freaking offensive line out with injuries last year it didn’t matter what we called. But yes. Coen is an extremely creative run caller and I hope Zac studies everything he did. Those 3 TE counter runs were especially deadly effective.