Bucky Irving took the NFL by storm as a rookie in 2024, recording more than 1,000 rushing yards as an unheralded fourth-round rookie and helping the Tampa Bay Buccaneers claim the NFC South for the fourth consecutive season. However, he struggled mightily in 2025 as the Buccaneers suffered a spectacular second-half collapse and got off to a relatively slow start in 2026 with Tampa Bay 0-4.
In Week 5, Irving and the Buccaneers showed signs of life. They picked up a 24-16 Thursday Night Football win over the Dallas Cowboys for their first win of the season, and Irving was unstoppable, managing 21 carries for 165 yards and a score and adding another two catches, 10 yards, and a touchdown through the air. His monster 29.5-FPT performance vaulted him to RB13.
Irving is rostered in 97% of Yahoo Sports fantasy leagues and started in 88%, so fantasy managers still believe in him. Barring a further collapse from Tampa Bay’s offense, he should continue to stay in fantasy lineups.
Results and Usage
Irving’s usage as a runner has slightly grown throughout the season, as he averaged 13.3 carries per game in the three games that Baker Mayfield started and 18.5 per game in the two games that Jalon Daniels has started. Additionally, he’s been pretty efficient, averaging 5.3 yards per carry for the season as a whole, the seventh-best mark among qualified running backs. However, Irving hasn’t been quite as consistent as some of the league’s other top running backs, as Brian Flores’ vaunted Minnesota Vikings defense managed to limit him to 3.1 yards per carry. Plus, the Buccaneers’ red zone offense is pretty egalitarian, so he doesn’t have a monopoly over touchdown scoring opportunities like some lead backs do.
Overall, advanced stats suggest that Irving is closer to the rookie who took the league by storm than the struggling, inefficient lead back from the second half of last season. He’s posted the 11th-highest rushing grades at Pro Football Focus after ranking fourth in 2024 and 44th last season, and he’s managed 1.14 more yards per attempt than expected, the seventh-best figure in the league. Irving has also forced the sixth-most missed tackles. He’s been one of the most patient runners in football, ranking seventh in time behind the line of scrimmage per attempt, and none of the six runners who average more time behind the line of scrimmage have been more efficient.
Future Outlook
Irving’s usage should remain pretty high as long as Daniels is at quarterback, as Zac Robinson has called a relatively conservative game-plan for the undrafted rookie signal-caller. Although Daniels has been accurate in his two starts, completing 73.1% of his passes (1.7 percentage points over expectation for the season as a whole), he’s been the least aggressive quarterback in football, and running the ball still seems a higher-ceiling option than asking Daniels to throw. That could change, but Daniels has gone just five-for-13 with two interceptions on throws of 10 or more yards downfield so far. Since Tampa Bay’s offense is more one-dimensional with Daniels in the game, Irving runs offer a change of pace.
However, there are some causes for concern. The Buccaneers’ offensive line ranks second by PFF’s pass-blocking grades but second-to-last by its run-blocking grades, so while both Daniels and Mayfield have been afforded plenty of time to throw and find deeper targets like Emeka Egbuka, Ted Hurst, and Tez Johnson, Irving has been afforded just 2.5 yards per carry before contact and Kenneth Gainwell only 0.9. Plus, Irving has just two catches in his two games with Daniels at quarterback, while Gainwell has seen more use as the receiving back. Gainwell’s superior pass-catching and pass-blocking could allow him to take some snaps away form Irving, as Irving’s snap share has dipped from the first two games of the season to the past three.
Irving should still be worth starting as a fringe RB1/RB2 this weekend when Tampa Bay hosts the Pittsburgh Steelers. This season, the Steelers have allowed the 12th-most FPTS per game to opposing running backs, although they’re more vulnerable against dual-threat backs, which Irving has not been this season. On a per-play basis, Pittsburgh has been about average, allowing the 16th-most yards per attempt, and the Steelers’ second-best run defender, former Buccaneers cornerback Jamel Dean, could sit. Pittsburgh has also missed the fourth-most tackles, and Irving is hard enough to bring down as is.
