Bucky Irving fantasy football owners, rejoice. After an extended absence, Tampa Bay’s lead running back has returned to the lineup. He announced his comeback with a great Week 13 performance, and it leaves us with questions: Can anyone else in the Bucs’ backfield maintain starter value?
Rachaad White and Sean Tucker owners, you might want to pay attention.
Analysis
Dealing with both upper and lower body injuries over the past couple of months, it was a lengthy road back to the field for Bucky Irving. The Buccaneers were very intentional in how they ramped up his action, and many assumed he’d continue to work back into things slowly. That was not the case against the Cardinals, his first game back as the starter.
Irving handled 17 of the 21 backfield carries. Two went to White, and two went to Tucker. It was total domination of the touches. This was also reflected in the snap counts. Irving was on the field 52% of the time, White 38% of the time, and Tucker just 15%. This tells us a few things.
One, Irving is all the way back and ready to assume bellcow duties. Two, Sean Tucker’s day in the sun is over. If he’s not getting carries or the pass-catching work, there’s no starting appeal. We’ll always have that week against the Bills.
But it’s worth noting that Rachaad White got so much passing-down work. He had more targets than Irving despite less usage. It wasn’t tremendously productive — three catches for 22 yards — but it was something.
In my opinion, neither White nor Tucker is worth starting. There’s not enough meat on the bone here, even with White’s passing-down work. But I do think White is the better hold in case Irving has injuries crop up again; Tucker is rapidly heading towards drop territory.
