What do Buccaneers have in newest offensive skill player?
By Rob Leeds
The Buccaneers found a new running back near the end of the third round of the 2022 NFL Draft. What do they have in Rachaad White?
Rachaad White is next in line of a group of running backs taken by Jason Licht for the Buccaneers on Day Two of the draft. This might be one of Licht’s biggest weaknesses by this point, but the pick has been made.
The good news for Bucs fans is White wasn’t as much of a reach as Ke’Shawn Vaughn was back in 2020, and there are some parts of White’s game to be very excited about.
For starters, White has one of the highest RAS scores for a running back ever. This is absolutely not an end-all measurement, but it is nice to see a guy that will be up there.
#2 #RAS RB 2022
— Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) April 13, 2022
Rachaad White is a RB prospect in the 2022 draft class. He scored a 9.88 RAS out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 21 out of 1624 RB from 1987 to 2022. https://t.co/Aw5RgO9PfK #RAS pic.twitter.com/JryPxXb3fJ
Based on the numbers, White has elite athleticism against solid size. This is par for the course for the front office (especially a Bruce Arians running backs), and the score of 9.87 blows Ronald Jones, Leonard Fournette, and Ke’Shawn out of the water.
Again, this score is not everything, but White is a far better prospect on this end than the last two big draft picks at the position for the Bucs (Jones and Vaughn).
The other good thing about White is that he actually has a history as a pass-catcher in college and projects to do this well in the NFL. Bucs fans talked themselves into Ke’Shawn Vaughn as the newest third-down back in Tampa the night he was drafted despite very few indications from college that he could do so.
White is on the other end of this spectrum. With 43 receptions during his final year with ASU, White had more receptions that season than Ronald Jones did in a college career.
Guys don’t magically become receiving backs out of nowhere. The tape and volume almost always have to be present for these skills to translate to the NFL, and White has those plus an extremely athletic upside.
Is this going to change anything dramatically for the Buccaneers? Probably not. Leonard Fournette should be the guy going forward with Giovani Bernard and Rachaad White to serve as change of pace roles, but there is a unique upside to White’s game that should keep fans very interested.
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