Rachaad White Explains How He Withstood So Much Punishment
February 21st, 2024
Body rehab detailed.
Last year Bucs running back Rachaad White had an absurd amount of carries: 272. Plus he had 64 catches.
To say White got the ball a lot is an understatement. Only 49ers back Christian McCaffery had more touches. McCaffery had the same amount of rushing attempts but caught 67 passes in the regular season.
White’s 272 carries was the most for a Bucs running back since Doug Martin had 288 in 2015 (Muscle Hamster had just 33 catches, though the regular season was one game shorter).
Appearing this week on the Adam Schefter Podcast, Schefter asked White about all his touches and asked him how much offseason time he requires to recover, or does he?
“Yeah, I’m not going to lie,” White said about his body needed to recuperate. Still, White said, he continues to show up at One Buc Palace and pump iron because he said he can’t let his body regress too much.
“But I’m just different,” White said. “I still come in, nothing too heavy. I keep getting treatment, stretching, starting with classes — yoga, Pilates.”
White didn’t really have an answer for why his body held up last season. It wasn’t like Dave Canales was sending White on a bunch of runs outside where he could pull a Franco Harris and just run out of bounds to avoid hits.
“Some of that is luck,” White said about how he wasn’t too beat up last season. “I have been fortunate in my football career not to miss too many games. It’s rare for me.”
One way White is trying to stay fresh is the Tom Brady influence and his magic rehab program, “TB 12.”
While White said he’s not working directly with Brady’s personal Svengali, Alex Guerrero, Brady still has a workout facility in Tampa that White regularly visits. White’s trainer, who he referred to as “my mentor,” is tight with Guerrero. So White said he’s indirectly influenced by Guerrero.
“Diet is huge,” White said. “I’m going to be on the track a lot. I am on the field a lot. Make sure to maintain my speed and get faster.
“I understand the weight I want to be at. Keep chopping at the wood.”
Joe has to figure if new offensive coordinator Liam Coen uses White as much as Canales did, White’s body sooner or later will start breaking down.
If White is expected to have the same workload with Coen, might Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht grab a running back in the third round? No sense in pounding White out of the NFL so soon.
February 21st, 2024 at 10:05 am
Go Bucs.
February 21st, 2024 at 10:07 am
Love his attitude. He does absolutely everything very well. He just needs a little bit better blocking from the center and guard positions.
He’s a patient runner and when someone is immediately in the backfield that is a detriment. I’m hoping they draft the center in the first round out of Oregon. Big nasty run blocker, and very good at pass blocking
They do that he’ll be up over 4 yards per carry
February 21st, 2024 at 10:16 am
Outside runs please
February 21st, 2024 at 10:29 am
Increase flexibility = decrease in soft tissue injuries. So yoga & pilates are solid along with the weights.
February 21st, 2024 at 10:51 am
We need another RB when a play is called up the middle.
February 21st, 2024 at 10:51 am
lol… maybe with a OL that can open up a crease he can have a easier go of it next year. It was brutal trying to run the ball on obvious running situations
February 21st, 2024 at 11:10 am
I like White. He was thrown under the usual bus for a bit (and in early cases, deservingly so) but he toughened up and Kept pushing and remained faithful to his self belief that he Could and Would so up like he said he would. Let’s be honest about our newly sculpted o line in that it was easy sledding initially. I’m in the “it didn’t matter who was toting the rock, the results would be close to the same as what White was initially able to produce for yards. ESPECIALLY since Every d line KNEW what was coming….
With that said, he kept his chin up and KEPT GRINDING as he himself learned how to be a better weapon and then the miracle happened. Some one FINALLY FIGURED OUT Exactly what he was good at. He wasn’t just good at his strengths, he is a cut above the rest! Give him a little space and BOOM! He’s GONE! Throw the ball his way AND BOOM! He WILL catch the ball and his YAC are elite.
He talked a good game and finally he Walked a Fantastic Game! It took time but White turned out to be special just like he kept telling us he was. He Never stopped Believing in Himself. He put his money where his mouth was..
Yeah, turns out J. Licht found ANOTHER GEM in White and now White needs a little help. He needs a running mate to Explode on the ground with for a “Thunder and Lightning” package. And if he gets it, We’ll Finally have a TRUE BLUE running game.
February 21st, 2024 at 11:13 am
Interior O line help. legit second RB, more of a 2 headed monster instead of a #2.
Legit top 10 running game means they can let Evans go if he wants over 18-20mil a year.
February 21st, 2024 at 11:34 am
Go Bucs!!!
February 21st, 2024 at 11:35 am
The unadvertised benefits of the TB12 protocols of hydration, electrolytes and muscle plyability is unimpeded electron flow for any affliction. Why because it is the key to cell communication and the resulting cell behavior. Anyway you can create unimpeded electron flow is helpful. That’s why at 74 I have no afflictions, my own everything and no interventions.
February 21st, 2024 at 11:37 am
New C Jackson Powers early 2nd….RB Audric Estime mid 3rd…he needs a run up the gut type for some help back there….
February 21st, 2024 at 11:45 am
Maybe a full back would help?
VV
February 21st, 2024 at 11:47 am
Defenses were somewhat wore out after beating up our Oline before getting to White…..or defenses were fresh after not being blocked by our oline.
I may be in the minority but I think White is a pretty good back…..needs some help from the line.
February 21st, 2024 at 11:51 am
I hope he lasts long enough to get a second contract, nice kid
February 21st, 2024 at 11:55 am
Powers Johnson is getting a lot of press and seems to be a good prospect. But Barton and Van pran are also very good prospects for center. As usual, we need to take the best prospect of available in an area of need for us with our first pick. If an edge guy is there rated higher than the interior linemen, obviously that’s the way we should go. One of those three centers will be available in the second and possibly third rounds.
February 21st, 2024 at 12:23 pm
Agreed, Steven007.
February 21st, 2024 at 12:24 pm
Check this out. Joe wrote about how Rachaad White had so many carries. This is from, it looks like, 1979. Dudes carried the ball regularly over 300 times a season, no big deal.
No wonder Earl Campbell had such a short shelf life. 355 carries! And those weren’t easy runs either.
February 21st, 2024 at 1:28 pm
My only knock on White as a RB is that he doesn’t have any moves, he is just a hard charging RB , I am talking about open field moves not dancing behind the LOS
February 21st, 2024 at 1:36 pm
Hmmmmm long time brady fan^^, I wonder if impeded electrons work in all areas of the body.. haha 74 years old? Im sure youve been using the tb12 method..hahahaha Sounds safer than an implant or blue pill?
February 21st, 2024 at 1:39 pm
Geez anyone who think Powers Johnson will be available in the 2nd is crazy.
This isn’t shopping and other teams will like the good ones too. Powers Johnson, Barton and Van Pran will ALL be gone in the 2nd, and 3rd is laughable.
February 21st, 2024 at 2:07 pm
He certainly could be a 2nd rounder but after that Senior Bowl performance, he seemed to move up into that 1st round 20 to 25 range.
February 21st, 2024 at 3:21 pm
White is great catching the ball. Let him focus on third downs to keep him fresh. Bring in someone as RB1 to share run play snaps and reduce the wear on White.
February 21st, 2024 at 4:49 pm
Oh Well
February 21st, 2024 at 5:25 pm
From all I’ve read, Powers Johnson had a slightly above average college career until his senior season where he blew up. Obviously he buttressed that with a good performance in the senior bowl. Always surprises in the draft. Someone could pick him at 19. Or he could slide into the second round.
February 22nd, 2024 at 12:17 am
As it has been, the interior O-line upgrade will be huge if it works out: holes for Rachaad to hit, and Baker probably won’t have the same problems with passes knocked-down because he was always rushed with not enough time.
February 22nd, 2024 at 2:45 am
So much punishment?
Really? It’s not like he runs like the A-Train Joe. That is part of the problem with him.
Go Bucs!
February 22nd, 2024 at 2:53 am
I like White, I’ve been defending him since they drafted him, his run style is great… but he’s on a 4-year deal, and nowadays you rarely give a RB a 2nd deal, so that means you also run them into the ground.
Hopefully he can hold up enough to get himself a 2nd deal with someone else in a couple of years. But the Bucs should get their full value out of the pick, and then draft someone to replace him, perhaps next year so they got a year to sit and learn.
February 22nd, 2024 at 3:14 am
I am so cynical these days that when I read about TB12 & his magic I can’t help but think they must’ve found a way to administer HGH in an untraceable way or sourced it from an untraceable plant and that is the “diet”. Probably way off base here but it wouldn’t surprise me one bit.
February 22nd, 2024 at 7:34 am
tommy b is gone…why not bring in rojo to spell white a bit and to run it up the gut…
did anyone hit the hole harder than rojo in tampa the past 10 years…?…i think not
February 22nd, 2024 at 7:35 am
if white gets used in 2024 to the extent he was used last season, with basically no help, by 2025 he’s gonna be semi-washed
February 22nd, 2024 at 9:07 am
He may have had a lot of carries but he avoided punishment and injuries because he would never hit the hole hard like a man. He danced around in the be backfield like a scared school girl. He is a good 3rd down back but we need a man back there on first and second downs who is not afraid to get hit.
February 22nd, 2024 at 3:14 pm
Well, obvious troll-posts aside, it’s good to see Rachaad getting recognition, but the slow development of this appreciation is a little on the baffling side: he doesn’t have to be a 3-down RB during his entire Buccaneers career, yet it seems he’s thought-of as being this type of RB; probably because, or at least partially because of the “emergency RB role” he’s playing-under.
Meaning: remember the announcement before the beginning of this season that Rachaad, a rookie last year, was going to BE the running game this year. Lenny, due to the decimated O-line, couldn’t get it done as the “power back” (which was needed to distribute the RB-assignment-load with Rachaad), was gone; and the running game was to be all-on Rachaad, spelled-by whatever could be managed with “back-up” level RB(s); (Vaughn, unfortunately); Edmunds did okay, but in the realm “today’s” NFL running game, he’s not what’s really needed; Edmunds isn’t a high level 3-downs, power-back.
So, in trying pull these loose-ends opinion-explanation together:
-A “feature-back” “these days” has to be McCafree-like, and Rachaad is that level of RB.
It worked, Rachaad “carried” the running game this year in an emergency situation. No, it shouldn’t be expected this situation will continue, and Rachaad won’t have to play multiple-RB-roles into next season.
-Critical: first round draft pick goes to the O-line, with a priority in subsequent rounds.
-A good power running back in the third round, etc. as a “specialist” in this way; as other teams will be looking for a combo run/receiver RB, so there could be a higher
availability for what the Buccaneers need.
Kevin Faulkner: 13 years with the Patriots.
James White: 8 years, and would still be playing if not for an unfortunate hip injury. Both great cut-back rushers, and CLUTCH receivers.
Rachaad, with the great skills of a cut-back RB who gains yards, not by crashing-through, but by -not- getting hit; and with a 90+% “catch-“rate” receiving, should have long, successful career with the buccaneers and thrive in the current “pass-game-oriented” NFL.
February 22nd, 2024 at 3:20 pm
Correction: make that Kevin Faulk; the software added-in that wrong-spelling, above.
February 22nd, 2024 at 11:18 pm
I think Licht messed up last off season he shud have signed baker for 10 mill for 2 years instead of 4 dmdill for 1 year he had baker by the nuts at that time I think Licht cud have done pretty much whatever he wanted that was the time to squeeze the orange tree for all they cud have now they don’t have the same power.