Maurice Jones-Drew Seems To Stiff-Arm Bucky Irving
February 12th, 2025
Bucky Irving better than 11th.
Joe and Maurice Jones-Drew actually agree on one thing here:
Bucky Irving is a strong running back. But that’s where Joe and MJD begin to separate. MJD, the former Jags star typing for NFL.com, doesn’t believe Bucky is a top-10 NFL running back, but close.
MJD wants to see more from Bucky. That’s why he ranked the Bucs as the No. 11 back in the NFL.
Rank: 11 Bucky Irving
2024 stats: 17 games | 207 att | 1,122 rush yds | 5.4 ypc | 8 rush TDs | 47 rec | 392 rec yds | 0 rec TDs | 1 fumble lost
Of all the players in the top 11, Irving is the one no one saw coming, and outranked by Houston’s Joe Mixon here only because the veteran was more consistent than the rookie from start to finish. The Bucs’ offense ranked fourth in rushing yards and third overall, and the fourth-round pick helped pave the way. He established himself as an above-average back in the second half of the season by recording 834 scrimmage yards in Weeks 12-18, third-most in the league in that span. I was impressed with his physicality when running between the tackles but also his ability to catch passes out of the backfield.
Well, Joe thinks Bucky was more than an “above average back” — if you run for 834 yards in seven games when you know the defense is keying on stopping you. That’s a damn good back.
Joe thinks MJD does good work for NFL.com, but he seemed to judge Bucky a little too harshly.
Joe would take Bucky over Aaron Jones, Joe Mixon, James Cook, Kyren Williams and Jonathan Taylor. That’s right, no typo there.
At least the good thing is Bucky was learning the NFL ways as a rookie. Imagine how good he might be now with a year of the NFL under his belt.
February 12th, 2025 at 10:34 am
Bucky’s YPC was actually better than Barry Sanders rookie season.
But I’m with MJD on one aspect. One season does not define any player other than to say they had at least one GREAT season. Bucky does indeed need to back it up to become the next great thing.
He could be the next Cadillac Williams.
February 12th, 2025 at 10:35 am
Barry Sanders-lite
February 12th, 2025 at 10:53 am
Bucky played great.
Had a few mistakes here and there but he was a rookie you expected that.
However based on his size I would prefer to give Tucker and White a few more snaps during games (from what we saw in the end of the season). Bucky was a bell cow back in the last few games but I will not want to give him that work load all season long.
Go Bucs
February 12th, 2025 at 10:53 am
The one thing you can’t teach is making people miss. You either have it or you don’t and Bucky has it in spades. The guy is a walking missed tackle. I’m not going to make the Barry Sanders comparison but Cadillac Williams is a great comparison.
February 12th, 2025 at 10:54 am
Love Bucky! Steal of the Draft!
Proof of why Jason Licht doesn’t like giving up ANY of his draft picks….
February 12th, 2025 at 10:55 am
Guess MJD wasn’t aware Bucky wasn’t a starter for the first 4 or so games.
February 12th, 2025 at 11:08 am
Before the bye he was averaging 9.6 rushes per game
After the bye he had 16 rushes per game, and 17.7 if you throw out the raiders game. In the same span he averaged 88 rypg and that includes a 3 yard game against raiders. Throw that game out and he had 100.5 rypg once he was the feature back.
If you take that production and put it into a season, he would be at 301 carries for 1544 yards and a 5.13 ypc. That is just rushing yards. Most years those numbers are top 2-3 backs in the nfl, and never out of top 5.
He was a top 5 back this year easy, only reason why he started slow was because he wasn’t the starter.
February 12th, 2025 at 11:29 am
That’s right J.
Not as consistent through the year or just not featured early? We know it was the latter.
Also, I think Mixon kinda went the opposite way. Started the season unbelievably, then became hit or miss week to week and had a couple strong games at the end.
We just saw what a stud RB can do when a team keys on him… Barkley 25 for 57 yards or something like that. Chiefs got that part right but unfortunately for them Hurts was dialed in and didn’t need anything more than the threat of Saquon to hurt them.
February 12th, 2025 at 11:44 am
Haters gonna hate. He can’t help but envision himself and think 🤔 ” He ain’t all that ” Maurice was a pund the rock guy and break a long one. If memory serves me right. He Played in….wait for it : (El Serpiente) says ~~~🐍 “Duhsss .Dooss.Durv…Dooooo Vaawwllsss hisssss ~~~~🐍 ” Didn’t he look like a sissy little boy who stole a candy got caught but knew he wasn’t going to get in trouble when he said that. Phew..back to MJD he’s a bad commentator and I hears he smells bad.
February 12th, 2025 at 12:04 pm
yeah take it with a grin of salt…………for now…
bucky’s just kinda getting on the map around the league and in nfl circles…
we have watched him blossom first hand, while others haven’t…
they’ll all wake up to bucky in 2025 if he continues to break out…
go bucky go…
run bucky run…
score bucky score…
February 12th, 2025 at 12:06 pm
MDJ makes a lot of questionable comments. He also said Malik Willis was going to be the next Michael Vick!!!!!
February 12th, 2025 at 12:07 pm
he reminds me a little of warrick dunn. dunn faster bucky stronger but running style wise seems very similar
February 12th, 2025 at 12:39 pm
Bucky also brought the running game from the doldrums of recent years to a third place finish in team rushing.
I’d place him as third best in the NFL. And he’d better than Barkley in catching passes
February 12th, 2025 at 12:50 pm
As a rookie he was spectacular. Let’s see,if he makes the jump. I think he will. He’s a veteran now.
February 12th, 2025 at 1:07 pm
MJD has always struggled with ranking things. He was great running back, but a very average analysis guy. Bucky to me would be in the top 8 for sure. He wasn’t streaky in the beginning of the year, he was stuck behind White for no good reason. How much better would he have been if he was RB1 from week 2-3 like he should have been.
February 12th, 2025 at 1:20 pm
I love Bucky, but he’s still prob our 2nd best RB behind Tucker in pure talent/skillset.
Which is not knocking Bucky. Tucker is just on another level.
February 12th, 2025 at 1:26 pm
Erik, I would like whatever you are smoking
February 12th, 2025 at 1:26 pm
MJD is a Baguar. What else should we expect.
February 12th, 2025 at 1:30 pm
It’s hard for me to talk about backs without talking about the OL. Saquon is a very good back but he had probably the best OL in the league – he had some giant holes.
I think Bucky was amazing finding holes as he didn’t have many giant holes like Saquon. The OL was better this year with better coaching and player improvement. Barton will be better next year with offseason training and a year under his belt. I’m not sure if Bredeson will improve much, but there will be a battle in camp for LG.
I expect Bucky and the run game will improve next year, especially after Bucky’s foot surgery.
February 12th, 2025 at 1:37 pm
JimBobBuc-I hadn’t heard anything about Bucky having foot surgery?
February 12th, 2025 at 1:56 pm
He needs a little more weight and muscle distribution to be able to sustain a 17 game regiment. If he goes down we don’t have anyone on the roster quite like him, pase yourself guys. Pace yourself. I want to see more Shaun Tucker.
February 12th, 2025 at 3:03 pm
rn coen and mjd are giggling in cahoots at a jacksonville waffle house, eating greazy food…making fun of bucky
February 12th, 2025 at 3:10 pm
Awful take by MJD. Bucky was a top 5 back as a rookie, the metrics and eye test back that up. I have him after Saquon, Henry, Gibbs, and Robinson, right at number 5.
February 12th, 2025 at 3:14 pm
MJD is wrong. We all saw Bucky “Barry” quite a few defenders this year with the jump cut.
February 12th, 2025 at 5:22 pm
Whoop de Doo
February 12th, 2025 at 6:31 pm
I love Bucky but take the homerism out of it and MJD is right. Bucky had a very good rookie year. Lets see him do it again before we crown him a top 10 back.
February 12th, 2025 at 6:53 pm
Hmmm former Jaguar player, not properly giving a Buc his due? Somehow this is El Serpiente’s fault.
February 12th, 2025 at 7:16 pm
Bucky needs to be used like Detroit uses Gibbs. Don’t over use and burn him out. White and Tucker are both servicable or better. Use the assets wisely. When Bucky weighs 210 you can play him 25 times a game. For now maybe 20 touches a game at the most. More effective when unpredictable. Those other 2 can play a little too.
We ran Caddy into the ground. Please be smarter this time. I’d like to see Bucky have a career like Dunn. Give some of those hits to the other guys.
February 12th, 2025 at 7:47 pm
MJD has a point about this being Bucky’s first season.
But I still disagree with him.
I’d put Bucky in the top 10 above a couple of other people on that list.
GO Bucky GO!
RUN Bucky RUN!
SCORE Bucky SCORE!
February 12th, 2025 at 9:19 pm
Bucky was a blessing. Now we need to be blessed with a nasty D.E
February 12th, 2025 at 10:33 pm
Bucky simply needs to keep the receipt and use the non-top 10 rating by the ex-Jaguar RB as motivation for next season. Number 11 is a bit low but in all honesty, who cares what MJD thinks! I hope Bucky uses the poster board material to his advantage next season as the top RB on the Bucs’ depth chart.
February 12th, 2025 at 11:58 pm
Bucky doesn’t need receipts from being disrespected. Bucky simply needs recognition from his own coaches and get more playing time. More carries will be that magic formula that will fix all those pundits opinions real quick.
You see when the Bucs finally figured out what they had, it was at least half way into the season. If anything, I put that miss on the ex OC. Stupid is what stupid did.
February 13th, 2025 at 3:03 am
A rookie! A running back! Hard to tackle!
“if you run for 834 yards in seven games when you know the defense is keying on stopping you. That’s a damn good back.”
Agree totally he got past guys many times when they were in the hole and had dead aim at him and I still do not know how he did it.
Gotta give him more credit than MJD did.
Go Bucs!
February 13th, 2025 at 12:02 pm
He played really well and took advantage of working his tail off to be a #1 back . Like most, agree he needs to add some extra pounds. Also feel that his pass blocking needs to improve and will with a few more pounds.
Tucker needs to spell him iif they want to keep the pressure on defenses, he is actually faster and certainly more of a short yardage back.
White has let us down many times losing yardage in red zone. Because he has no burst, in compressed part of field he isn’t strong enough and can’t get low. I like Tucker in those 1st and goal from the 2 or 3 more than Tucker.
I also think the Bucs need to go for 4th downs and short and sneak Baker. He’s short, can get low and should be doing what Allen and Hurts do. With our offensive line we should never be punting next year when we cross midfield.
That is old time football, now you use all 4 downs.
February 13th, 2025 at 3:45 pm
He’s a DOOOOOOOOOOOVALLLLLLL guy, shocker
February 14th, 2025 at 12:06 pm
UCLA guy not giving an Oregon kid his props… seems legit