Bucky Irving

Tampa Bay Buccaneers·#7UNDERPAID

Pos RBHt 5'10"Wt 195 lbExp 1 yrCollege Oregon

RB rankings →

Model Score

78.0 MODEL

2024

82.5

2025

78.0

How good he is at what he is supposed to be doing, out of 100. Not a projection of what he will do next, and not a read on his contract. Median is about 70, and a 95 is rare. How it is built →

Season Stats · 10 games

58835th

Rush Yds

158th

Rush TD

3031st

Rec

27721st

Rec Yds

443rd

Total TD

14.118th

Fantasy PPG

Advanced Metrics EPA & Next Gen Stats

-0.20668th

EPA / rush

-10571st

Rush yds over exp

4.45

Efficiency

2.71s

Time to line

STM Take

The 2025 #36 (tier 8) is one of the steepest year-over-year drops on the board, from #4 (tier 1) in 2024. Wk 4's 25.5 PPR shows the early-season player was still there, but the Wk 13-18 stretch (16.1, 16.1, 8.1, 7.1, 8.3, 10.8) is a clear pattern of role compression and likely a nagging issue. The 2026 question is whether the 2024 ceiling returns or the 2025 grind is the new baseline.

Irving came out of Oregon as Tampa Bay's 4th-round pick (125th overall) in 2024 after transferring from Minnesota. He broke out as a rookie with 1,122 rushing yards on 5.4 yards per carry, finishing 2024 at STTM #4 in tier 1, one of the highest finishes ever by a 4th-round rookie back. At 5'9" and 195 pounds, he is undersized for an every-down role but plays with elite vision and contact balance. Tampa Bay leaned on him hard down the stretch of 2024 and made him their unquestioned lead back entering 2025.

Strengths

Rookie 1,122 rushing yards on 5.4 YPC plus #4 (tier 1) STTM finish in 2024 is one of the best rookie production lines of the past decade at the position.
Wk 4 2025's 25.5 PPR shows the explosive ceiling is intact when he is healthy and getting full workload. At 24 years old he still has prime years ahead.

Concerns

The collapse from #4 to #36 in one season is the steepest crash on the board. Six straight games under 11 PPR (Wk 13-18) suggests a sustained issue (injury, scheme change, or workload split) rather than variance.
His 5'9"/195 frame is undersized for a 280-touch workload, which is what 2024 demanded and 2025 may have reflected the cost of.

What to watch: Whether the 2026 carry count stays under 250 (a workload tax for his frame) and whether his yards-per-carry rebounds above the 4.5 threshold that collapsed in 2025.