Tampa Bay Buccaneers News Updates
For the first five games of the 2024 season, the Buccaneers had a two-man backfield, with Rachaad White starting and rookie Bucky Irving getting a significant piece of the action. Occasionally, they were on the field together in “21” packages.
It was working. The two combined for 182 yards from scrimmage in the season-opening win over Washington, 119 in Week Three against Denver, 139 in Week Four against Philadelphia and 122 in Week Five in Atlanta.
However, White missed the Buccaneers’ most recent game in New Orleans with a foot injury, moving Irving into the starting spot with second-year man Sean Tucker as the complementary piece. And that really worked. The Buccaneers ran for 277 yards, the third-highest single-game total in franchise history, Tucker won NFC Offensive Player of the Week and the back tandem was responsible for 297 yards from scrimmage and three touchdowns.
With White not expected to be sidelined for long – he has practiced in a limited fashion this week and the Buccaneers hope he can return on Monday night against Baltimore – Offensive Coordinator Liam Coen is in the enviable position of having three backs he believes can drive the offense, and the unenviable position of figuring out how to get them all involved. When asked earler in the week if he thought the Bucs might have a “three-headed monster” in their backfield, Head Coach Todd Bowles agreed that it was a possibility.
On Friday, Coen indicated that, if White does return to action on Monday, all three backs could get a look early in the game.
“No, you have to get all three of them a series early on,” he said. “At the end of the day, that’s what it’s going to have to be, is all three of those guys are going to get a series and really kind of whoever is giving us the best opportunity. This is a game that we’re going to need to break tackles and need to run violently so whoever is giving us that – we’ll be able to ride that.”
The committee backfield and “hot-hand” approach are anathema to the ears of fantasy football players, but the Bucs are concerned about the long-term viability of their backfield, with 12 weeks still to go in the regular season and hopefully a playoff run after that.
“I think this is a long season, right?” said Coen. “Obviously, Sean stepped up in a critical moment for us in a big game and displayed a lot of things that we have seen at practice but a lot of things that we haven’t been able to see because of the not being able to tackle. He did a fantastic job of breaking tackles and running hard. This is a long season, we’re going to need all three of those guys to really carry us for the rest of the season. All guys are going to play, they’re going to get reps and at the end of the day, whoever is giving us the best opportunity to win throughout that game will probably get the majority of the carries. … [It’s a] long year, [we] need all three of them to be at their best in order for us to continue that running success.”
CLICK HERE to watch Coen’s Friday press conference.
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