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Bucky Irving

RB·Tampa Bay Buccaneers·#7·5'10"·195 lb·2nd year·Oregon
UNDERPAIDTier 1Round 4, pick 125 in 2024
Updated November 4, 2026
84.5
Model Score
Up from 78.0 last year
Trade value ·an early 2nd

Bucky Irving has 147 carries for 728 yards, 5 rushing touchdowns and 18 catches for 78 yards in 8 games for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this season through Week 8, 16.8 PPR points a game (updated November 4, 2026).

Model Score by season

Up 6.5 from last season.

70809010084.5202420252026

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 →

STM Take

An explosive young back coming off a steep decline.

The case for

  • 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.

The worry

  • 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.

Full take and bio

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.

Comps

The players whose size, testing and production looked most like his at the same point in their careers. The percent is how close.

Plays like: D'Andre Swift, Maurice Jones-Drew, Jamaal Charles. Built like: Marcus Murphy, Justin Forsett, Jawhar Jordan. Coming out: James White, Kenjon Barner, Darwin Thompson.

Of his 20 closest coming out: 1 star, 1 starter, 10 backups, 8 didn't stick.

Bucky Irving Props This Weekvs ATL

MarketLineOverUnder
Rushing yards69.5-115 Bovada-115 Bovada
Receptions2.5-165 Bovada+125 Bovada
Receiving yards17.5-115 Bovada-115 Bovada

Best price across 9 books as of Mon Nov 2. Lines move; check the book before you bet. This week's board · Line Room

Play Bucky's numbers on Underdog · partner link

Bucky Irving Injury StatusNot listed

Bucky Irving is not on the injury report as of Nov 4. Source: the official NFL injury report, refreshed daily.

This season · 8 games

Rush Yds7284th
Rush TD511th
Rec1818th
Rec Yds7828th
Total TD611th
Fantasy PPG16.814th
EPA / rush-0.00114th
Rush yds over exp917th
Efficiency3.84
Time to line2.95s

16.8 fantasy points a game, 135 PPR on the season. Every game on the Game Log, every season on Career. Advanced numbers are EPA and Next Gen Stats.

Contract2026 cap

2026 Cap Hit
$1.3M
APY
$1.2M/yr
Guaranteed at Signing
$732K
Years on Deal
4
Signed
2024
Est. Value
$10.8M/yr
underpaid by $9.6M/yr

Every year of the deal, the dead money and what a cut or trade saves on the Contract tab.

Fantasy outlookWeek 9

Our rest-of-season board has Bucky Irving at RB14 (the public consensus says RB16); the model has 129 PPR points left for him this season; this week he hosts ATL.

Price a trade for him on the fantasy trade calculator, or see the whole board on the Fantasy hub.

Draft & College

Round 4, pick 125 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2024, out of Oregon (Pac-12).

Taken#125
Our college model#81 RB

In college, 2022-2023, 24 games: 2,052 rush yds, 17 TD, 6.5 yds/carry, 28 rec.

Recruited

Class of 2021 · Running back · High school: Hillcrest, Country Club Hills, IL

Recruiting sites
★★★★★
No. 340 in the nation. Composite 0.8972, the recruiting sites' average
Committed to

His full list of offers is not on our record yet; offers for the 2021 class are still being added.

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