Pewter Pulse: BUCS RB CONTROVERSY Brewing In Tampa Bay?

hello Peter people Scott Reynolds here with another Peter pulse bucks rookie running back Bucky Irving had quite a debut in Tampa Bay's 37-2 season opening win Irving ran for 62 yards on nine carries averaging nearly seven yards per carry by comparison starter Rashad white rushed for just 31 yards on 15 carries averaging just 2.1 yards per carry after ripping off a 31 yard run in the second half Bucks fans at the stadium started chanting bucky bucky bucky that caught me off guard you see I've covered some really popular running backs in my time here at Peter report in Tampa Bay over the last three decades from Mike allot to war dun to the Garrett blunt to the Muscle Hamster Doug Martin to play off Lenny Leonard forette so is there a running back controversy that's brewing in Tampa Bay after Irving's debut I'll have more on that in a minute but first you reminder to hit the Thumbs Up Button give us a like and also leave a comment love reading the comments and doing those two things helps us with the YouTube algorithm and helps us get in front of more awesome Bucks fans like yourself so let's talk about this bucks backfield and will it be Bucky Irving or Rashad white that becomes the lead back this year in my two-point conversion column on Monday I predicted that Bucky Irving would eventually become rb1 this year in Tampa Bay he runs with the sense of urgency that new offensive coordinator Liam Cohen wants in his running backs and there's no hesitation to his game he reminds me of LA Rams pro bowler Kiren Williams in that way Rashad white is a very good back he just doesn't hit the holes as fast and I think eventually he'll lose more carries to Irving as a result now that doesn't mean that white will be taking a back seat anytime soon he had six catches for 75 yards against the commanders including the longest play of the day a 32 yard reception look for more games where white will top 100 yards but it might be a mix of rushing and receiving yards like it was on Sunday and don't rule out him getting the hot hand and rushing for 100 yards a few times this year either white had a pair of 100 yard rushing days at Indianapolis and Atlanta last season in fact both running backs can coexist in Tampa Bay and that's the best case scenario they both can run the ball they both can catch it and they're both also good pass protectors but white log 272 carries last year while backup Chase Edmonds had just 49 carries that's a huge discrepancy and a massive workload for white no wonder white averaged just 3.6 yards per carry last year with a that heavy lifting I've seen two backs coexist in Tampa Bay a few times in my career most notably War Dunn and Mike allot who comprised the famous WD WD40 backfield in the late 1990s the bucks even had some recent success with the twack approach if you remember Ronald Jones ran for over 900 yards during the 2020 regular season but it was Leonard forette who took over in the playoffs and became playoff Lenny in Super Bowl 55 forette ran for 89 yards and a touchdown while Jones chipped in for 61 yards and a 31 to9 win over the Chiefs Baker Mayfield has seen a two-headed attack in the backfield work exceptionally well that happened in Cleveland in 2020 when Mayfield and the Browns went 11 and five and beat the Steelers in the playoffs that year Nick chub ran for 1,67 yards and 12 touch Downs on 190 carries while averaging 5.6 yards Kareem hunt ran for 841 yards and six touchdowns on 198 carries and had a 5.2 yard average in the playoffs chub ran for 145 yards in average 4.7 he also caught six passes for 73 yards in a score but it was hunt who had three rushing touchdowns in 80 yards and averaged 5.7 yards in addition to catching two passes for 15 yards in the postseason having two capable backs is always better than one and it safeguards the Bucks in case either white or Irving gets injured and don't forget about sha Tucker waiting in the wings as the third running back on the depth chart in case he's needed he's also capable the good news is that white and Irving get along great and both are team players there's no doubt that each guy wants to be the feature back that comes with the territory of being an NFL running back and I've got a funny feeling they'll be taking turns in the spotlight this year with one back having more success one week and the other guy getting more yards the next of course Bucks fans will have their favorite I saw that firsthand with allot and Dunn back in the day and that's okay the Florida state alums they wanted done to be featured while the allot supporters wanted the A train to carry the load it made for a great debate back in the day in sports radio and I'm sure the Bucky Brigade and the Rashad loyalists will go at it on X and Facebook throughout the year the Bucks want both backs to be successful because when that happens as you saw on Sunday when white had a combined 106 yards and Irving combined for 78 yards between the ground and the air well it helped Tampa Bay roll up 37 points and win the day against Washington so any controversy will be confined to social media where it belongs and not at one Buccaneer place in the end it doesn't matter who the lead back will be as long as the Bucks keep winning with both of them folks I want you to check out pter Report TV that's our YouTube channel and and hit the Subscribe button become a subscriber we're on our way to 16,000 subscribers thanks to you for more of my pter pulse episodes and our pter report podcast and other great bucks video content you can find them there pter Report TV make sure you follow us on X Facebook and Instagram at pewterreport and pewterreport.com has all of the breaking news injury reports transactions and of course the best game coverage of your Tampa Bay Buccaneers that you'll find and I'll be back soon with a new pter pulse