A lot has been made about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers rookie class this year, but the first guy to step up was not who everyone was expecting.
Jalen McMillan has been making waves at training camp and seems to be the real deal as Tampa Bay’s WR3 this year. He’ll be in a fantastic situation to succeed, playing alongside Mike Evans and Chris Godwin as he makes the case for potentially taking over one of their roles in the near future.
It was another offensive player who stood out as a big winner from Saturday’s 17-14 win over the Bengals. Bucky Irving was a fourth round pick, but he showed first round upside in the small sample size Bucs fans got of him in the preseason opener.
Irving finished the game with six carries for 26 yards and a touchdown, but he looked right at home with the reps he got.
Bucky Irving gets the @Buccaneers on the board!
đ±: Stream #TBvsCIN on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/QmESgHNX5U
— NFL (@NFL) August 10, 2024
He didn’t play a ton, but he was the focal point of the Buccaneers offensive attack over the first few drives. New offensive coordinator Liam Coen clearly loves the rookie, but he’s not the only coach who is praising Irving after his first game.
Todd Bowles praised Bucky Irving after his impressive preseason debut
After the win, head coach Todd Bowles was asked about Irving’s first game and wasn’t shy about how he felt. This is notable in that we typically don’t get long-winded answers from Bowles, but he used few words to say big things about the rookie running back.
“He had no jitters, he wasn’t nervous and hit the holes well. He caught the ball well, pass blocked well,” Bowles said. “I’ll check the tape for everything else, but I thought he had a good first outing.”
Rachaad White is the clear-cut RB1 this season, but Irving could make the case to assume the RB2 role before the preseason is over. Chase Edmonds figures to slot into a role somewhere on the depth chart, but if Irving keeps up what he started on Saturday it might be the rookie who is alongside White on the depth cahrt.
That’s sort of the idea, or at least the hope, Bucs fans had in mind when Irving was drafted. Edmonds is a great veteran option but he was limited in his ability last season and also lost a large chunk of time to injury.
Irving could be the Robin to White’s Batman, and while we’ll need to see more out of him than just six carries to draw that conclusion, things are off to an exciting start.
