He has his moments, for sure.

General Manager Jason Licht doesn’t get all his picks right; no GM does. What he does do is find some extremely valuable players. Players that others pass on that he sees something more in than the average eye. I’ll admit that when I heard the name Bucky Irving, Oregon, called out from the podium on draft day. I knew little about the young man. I knew, though, that Licht wasn’t in the habit of drafting bums (although the #5 overall selection spent on a certain LSU linebacker not too long ago sure turned out to be). So, I had high hopes for the incoming rookie.

Jack or Stinkpot?

Here we are at week 14 this Sunday, and the Oregon rookie with the cute name has become the RB1 and could reach a thousand yards—something we haven’t seen since Doug Martin. At this point, Irving’s stats read like this: 133 attempts for 732 yards rushing. That is averaging 5.5 yards a carry. That would smash RoJo’s club record (5.1) for YPC for a season if it holds up. Let’s be honest: a thousand yards in today’s NFL is only 58 yards a game in a 17-game schedule. Back when the NFL played a 12-game season, a back needed close to 100 (83.3 yards a game) to pull it off. Still, very few have pulled it off in a Buccaneer’s uniform. Only 8 different backs can claim to have done it. Some did it more than oncc, like Wilder, Dunn, Rhett, and Martin. You get the idea, though. 8 backs in 12 seasons. In comparison, the Giants have done it 26 times, the Packers 26, and a team that came into the NFL at the same time as the Bucs, the Seahawks have done it in 23 seasons. Division rival the Falcons have done it 25 times. The Saints, though, are almost the same as the Bucs, with only 13 seasons having rushed for a grand.

Easy to accomplish.

Bucky Irving has 5 games left to get it done. It would take 53 yards a game; certainly, that is obtainable if he stays healthy. As easy as it sounds to make the 1000-yard mark in a season, it’s surely not a given that many backs do it every year. The Bucs have never had a bellcow at RB1. The closest thing to that was probably Mike Alstott, who piled up 949 yards, never reaching the 1000-yard mark. Guys like Wilder, Dunn, and Martin all had a couple of seasons doing it. They could never do it with consistency. No Buc ever has. Maybe Bucky Irving will change all that and string together a handful of 1000-yard seasons and become a Bucs Legend at the position. We need a player to have a career like that here.  Why not a duck? Go Bucs!!