Ex-Buc Says Bucky Irving Could Be Next Isiah Pacheco
September 12th, 2024
Bucky Fever, also known as Bucky Irving Fever, is alarmingly contagious.
A virtual pandemic of sorts broke out Sunday at The Licht House.
Fan chants of “BUH-key, BUH-key, BUH-key” with Irving in the backfield began before the snap of the football and continued through him carrying the rock. It was so cool. Heck, NFL Network did a mini-feature on it.
So why so much excitement for a fourth-round rookie in his first game? Because Bucs fans have been starved for a rushing attack for two years, ranking last in the NFL in yards per carry over that time.
Irving flashed juice and an attack-dog rushing style in preseason and that extended into his regular-season debut.
Listeners to the Spanish language radio broadcasts of Bucs games know former Bucs Super Bowl kicker Martin Gramatica (2002) is the game analyst. He’s been doing it for years. Gramatica is a reasoned, seasoned and classy guy, not a hot-take artist.
Gramatica was on WDAE radio this week and compared Irving to Chiefs starting running back Isiah Pacheco.
“I love the guy, the energy he plays for … he’s not a big guy, but he runs big. I love the way he runs,” Gramatica said of Irving. “He reminds me a lot of Pacheco with the Chiefs, where he’s always moving, very electric and when he finds that hole, he hits it hard.”
Pacheco shocked the NFL in 2022 as a seventh-round-pick rookie. He’s now got two Super Bowl rings and a 4.6 yards-per-carry average in his career, plus strong showings in the postseason.
Joe can’t call Irving the next Pacheco after one game, but Irving has injected a whole lot of hope into Bucs fans for a running game that could propel the offense to elite status.
September 12th, 2024 at 12:57 pm
I think he’s too small to ever be a bell cow back, but if they use him in tandem with Rachaad White he could be fantastic.
September 12th, 2024 at 12:59 pm
Great pick….we needed to add a RB & apparently chose the right one!!!
September 12th, 2024 at 1:05 pm
I am impressed by Jason Licht’s staff, the last few drafts have been great
September 12th, 2024 at 1:20 pm
Take away that huge hole that gave him the 31 yard gain and he’s 8-31, pedestrian
September 12th, 2024 at 1:29 pm
All he does is make long runs!
September 12th, 2024 at 1:39 pm
Bucky Irving reminds me of the former Bucs, Warrick Dunn.
September 12th, 2024 at 1:43 pm
Take away all explosive plays and every player is pedestrian what are we doing here. Go bucs so excited for this season.
September 12th, 2024 at 1:49 pm
Waaaay too early for that…
September 12th, 2024 at 2:04 pm
See Joe, you can do it!
You posted an article about Bucky and the run game WITHOUT a direct or indirect attack/criticism aimed at RW.
I’m so proud of you. 🙂
Lets go Bucs!!
September 12th, 2024 at 2:04 pm
This is the same comparison I’ve made, because their running styles seem similar.
Bucky is a 195-lb version of Pacheco. (who is 215 lb)
September 12th, 2024 at 2:06 pm
Beeej- take away the 3 e’s in your name and it is BJ. Something that I am sure that you are very good at
September 12th, 2024 at 2:34 pm
Bucky brings that change of pace to our offense that we’ve been lacking. Still, our OLine ‘upgrades’ are what made all the difference Sunday. And they’ll just continue to get better & better with each game. And so should our running game.
Sunday’s game really was ‘A Tale of Two Halfs’ though. Bucky only ran 3 times in the 1st half, for 6 yards (2.0 YPC). But he ran 6 times in the 2nd half, for 56 yards (9.3 YPC). And in there were 2 great runs for 31 yards & 11 yards. So in the game Bucky had 7 runs for 20 yards (2.9 YPC) plus 2 runs for 41 yards (20.5 YPC).
And that’s what all great running backs do. If they hit 2 or 3 explosive runs in every 10 or so carries, they’ve done great. It’s also helpful though to minimize the negative carries. Fournette was actually very good at that. Rachaad? Not-so-much … yet.
September 12th, 2024 at 2:37 pm
Reminds me of Dunn…..relatively small in stature but shifty and explosive. Whites days are numbered, he’ll be a free agent and Irving/Tucker have shown more than capable, particularly Irving who I believe is equally as skilled as a pass catcher to White.
September 12th, 2024 at 2:39 pm
“Buccos Says:
September 12th, 2024 at 2:06 pm
Beeej- take away the 3 e’s in your name and it is BJ. Something that I am sure that you are very good at”
A very convincing counter argument, worthy of the old SNL Dan Akroyd/ Jane Curtain ‘Point-Counterpoint’. Keep up the good work, Lorne is sure to discover you
September 12th, 2024 at 2:49 pm
Buckyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!
September 12th, 2024 at 2:55 pm
Bucky runs with great effort and short-speed (shiftiness). Pacheco runs like he’s fighting through people to get into the burning building to rescue his toddler. Both good but, different, in my opinion.
September 12th, 2024 at 3:05 pm
Bucky Irving definitely brings juice to the game, very elusive. Kameron Johnson is another player to watch also. I like Liam Coen’s offense & the explosive plays he has designed. It all starts with the guys up front protecting Baker & opening holes for the backs. It was a good start for the season opener but it’s a long season. A lot of work to be done, GO BUCS 🙂🏈
September 12th, 2024 at 3:35 pm
Bobby M said:
“Whites days are numbered, he’ll be a free agent and Irving/Tucker have shown more than capable, particularly Irving who I believe is equally as skilled as a pass catcher to White.”
RW is going nowhere. He’s too valuable. Coen knows this
Bucky has caught how many passes in the NFL ?
Played how many games ?
Picked up how many blitz’s ?
And Tucker has shown he can run into a pile, change directions and run fast, against 2nd and 3rd stringers in preseason – lol.
Liam knows what he has. I think he’ll utilize the backs properly. Bucky will get his share, Tucker will be very limited unless RW or Bucky get hurt.
Our run game will be as good as our O-Line is, period. Based on a very small sample size things look promising but we had way too many run plays that were DOA due to missed blocks and/or penetration as many others have pointed out.
September 12th, 2024 at 3:53 pm
Bucky glides like a james wilder and has the shake and bake of ricky bell.
Been pounding the table all preseason for this kid to get more carries. Whats it going to take coaches!?
September 12th, 2024 at 4:08 pm
Beeej….. If he runs 2yds, -1 yd and 14 yds that’s 5.0 YPP. You (ridiculously) seem to think he’s supposed to get 5 every time he touches the ball. Can you say “average?”
September 12th, 2024 at 4:42 pm
What I like about that headline is he would then be a back to back Super Bowl winner ! Lol Go Bucky
September 12th, 2024 at 5:16 pm
go bucky go…
run bucky run…
score bucky score…
September 12th, 2024 at 5:51 pm
Bucky Irving has that vision few before him have had.
September 12th, 2024 at 6:35 pm
Let’s all take it easy and not blow this out of proportion. I, like many of you were there in the stands, in the sweltering uncomfortable game experience which is RayJay and the Bucky chant alone was infectious as we were all enjoying our dominance over Washington. Are we not going to chant Bucky it started to spread?
September 12th, 2024 at 7:05 pm
It’s funny how Joe low key threw White under the bus when bringing up the worst rushing attack in the NFL 2 years straight, again. At least half of that horrible formula left for Kittytown. Somebody should ask him did it hurt his feelings hearing fans scream Bucky! Bucky!
September 12th, 2024 at 7:09 pm
@Beeej you can do the same thing to all players in all sports. Saquon Barkley only averages 3.26 yards per carry last week if you take away his longest run.
September 12th, 2024 at 7:53 pm
Displaced in KC Area and love the comparison here.
September 12th, 2024 at 8:09 pm
BUH.. Keyyyyy ! 😎
September 12th, 2024 at 8:33 pm
Play complimentary running back football between Bucky and White
September 12th, 2024 at 8:34 pm
Play complimentary running back football between white and Bucky
September 12th, 2024 at 8:49 pm
“Bucs’n’Bucks Says:
September 12th, 2024 at 4:08 pm
Beeej….. If he runs 2yds, -1 yd and 14 yds that’s 5.0 YPP. You (ridiculously) seem to think he’s supposed to get 5 every time he touches the ball. Can you say “average?””
I’m SAYING we opened ONE one huge in the game and Bucky was the recipient. When working with statistics you chuck the outliers . (That being said, he did better than White, will get better sample size next week)
September 12th, 2024 at 9:13 pm
Hey Joes, we haven’t had a legit 1-2 RB punch in like 2 decades, at least! White is going nowhere; he’s too dangerous as a receiver. For this long time, long suffering Bucs fan, I’m just getting a kick outta watching a super Offense perform and it belongs to Tampa Bay. I guarantee Senor Gramatica knows what I’m talking about, too. Go Bucs!!
September 12th, 2024 at 9:27 pm
While it’s true that outliers can sometimes skew statistical outcomes, blindly accepting that without reasoning is a clear logical hasty generalization.
While if I had a math class where all the students scored between 35 and 60 on a test, and two students scored 95 percent, I might look behind the scores and determine those two students were math genius and statistically not consider those results if I wanted to make a future test where the students might score between 70 and 90. So, those statistical outliers helped me make a better test for the masses.
Yet, at the same time, if I had 75-year history of running backs breaking long runs, and some of the best did that more often, I would not throw out the long runs as statistical outliers. It is actually a measure of their greater skill. Something to be valued.
I hate oversimplifications the most, especially when they are clearly wrong.
September 13th, 2024 at 5:54 am
I think Bucky is very similar to Darren Sproles, who was 5 foot 6 inches and 190 lbs. For his size he was a pretty good runner up the middle as well as an all round back.
September 13th, 2024 at 8:49 am
Beeej, and if your grandma had wheels, she’d be a bicycle.
Outliers matter, yes, but in football, you can’t really have massive negative runs (most runs for a loss would be 2-3 yards, maybe 5 yards max). So, you automatically have a lower bounding number that is much closer to a RB’s average (league-wide, that was 4.1 ypc in 2023). Taking out the positive and negative outliers wouldn’t give you good data to use to evaluate a RB’s effectiveness. If your argument is that we need to see it consistently over the course of a season, then I agree wholeheartedly.
September 13th, 2024 at 9:56 am
Well said, Orlbucfan. Let us enjoy what we have this year. Next year, who knows.
I do enjoy the stat discussions here. I am a little too lazy to argue mathematical minutia, however.
Go Bucs!
September 13th, 2024 at 10:52 am
This exact thought crossed my mind about a week to week and a half ago! Literally, I even looked up their combine stats (height/weight/40/vertical/etc.), & they really weren’t all that close. So, I kinda abandoned the thought LoL.
September 13th, 2024 at 3:46 pm
Bucky gets two tds this weekend. You heard it here first – Jose the chosen one