{"id":890635,"date":"2026-05-14T02:33:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T02:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/890635\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T02:33:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T02:33:18","slug":"buccaneers-starting-rb-still-not-ready-to-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/890635\/","title":{"rendered":"Buccaneers\u2019 Starting RB Still Not Ready to Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers\u2019 <\/a>biggest problems last season was the injury bug, and RB Bucky Irving<\/a> was hit hard by it.<\/p>\n

After a fantastic rookie season in 2024 in which he ran for more than 1,100 yards, Irving regressed in 2025, and the biggest reason was his health.<\/p>\n

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Irving ended the season with significant drop offs in yards (1,122 to 588), yards per carry (5.4 to 3.4) and touchdowns (eight to one).<\/p>\n

He also missed seven games due to injuries, and when he was healthy enough to play, Irving\u2019s shoulder was still bothering him to the point where it required offseason surgery.<\/a><\/p>\n

Irving still isn\u2019t healthy enough to practice, per his new offensive coordinator.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we\u2019re missing him right now,\u201d Zac Robinson told reporters this week, noting that the Bucs will learn more about Irving\u2019s status later.<\/p>\n

It has been widely reported that Irving has been rehabbing at One Buc Place recently and working in the team\u2019s offseason program.<\/p>\n

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It was first reported in February that Irving had undergone surgery and that the injury wouldn\u2019t significantly impact Irving\u2019s offseason activities.<\/p>\n

As of now, there\u2019s no evidence that Irving won\u2019t be ready for training camp, and there\u2019s certainly nothing to suggest that he won\u2019t be ready come Week 1.<\/p>\n

Still, it\u2019s something to monitor.<\/p>\n

For one, Irving is Tampa<\/a>\u2019s best running back, and when he\u2019s at his best, he\u2019s one of the best players in Tampa\u2019s offense.<\/p>\n

Depth at the position is also essential.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, signing Kenneth Gainwell,<\/a> who was the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 <\/a>team MVP in 2025, could make it easier to get by should Irving\u2019s health continue to betray him.<\/p>\n

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On the other, having multiple quality running backs is essential in today\u2019s NFL.<\/p>\n

Case in point, last year\u2019s Super Bowl champs.<\/p>\n

The Seattle Seahawks<\/a> got significant contributions from Kenneth Walker<\/a> (1,027 yards, five TD, 4.6 yards per carry, Super Bowl MVP) and Zach Charbonnet<\/a> (730 yards, 12 TD, 4.0 YPC) last season.<\/p>\n

The team Seattle beat in the Super Bowl also had a running back by committee approach and had success.<\/p>\n

Treveyon Henderson<\/a> (911 yards, nine touchdowns, 5.1 YPC) and Rhamondre Stevenson<\/a> (603 yards, seven touchdowns, 4.6 YPC) were both big reasons why the New England Patriots<\/a> won the AFC.<\/p>\n

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If injuries continue to plague QB Baker Mayfield<\/a> and the Bucs receivers take a step back without Mike Evans, <\/a>the need for a quality running game will be magnified, and that starts with Irving.<\/p>\n

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Download the free Roundtable APP, and stay even more connected!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers\u2019 biggest problems last season was the injury bug, and RB Bucky Irving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":890636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2077],"tags":[1842,211,312,7,14451,9294,700,249,6,57,4120,261,209,704,250,2597,2596,596,12062],"class_list":{"0":"post-890635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-baker-mayfield","9":"tag-buccaneers","10":"tag-bucky-irving","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-kenneth-gainwell","13":"tag-kenneth-walker","14":"tag-mike-evans","15":"tag-new-england-patriots","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","18":"tag-rhamondre-stevenson","19":"tag-seattle-seahawks","20":"tag-tampa","21":"tag-tampa-bay","22":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","23":"tag-tampabay","24":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers","25":"tag-treveyon-henderson","26":"tag-zach-charbonnet"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116570593948780601","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/890636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}