The Tampa Bay Buccaners have an awful lot to prove to the rest of the NFL after blowing the NFC South and the entire playoffs last season when they were supposed to be favorites to win the division and even hyped up by pundits as Super Bowl contenders through the first couple of months of the 2025 campaign.
To their credit, Jason Licht and the Buccaneers organization made big upgrades in free agency and the draft, and many of their best players are going to be healthier next season. One of the key areas in which they will be considerably better next season is the ground game behind franchise quarterback Baker Mayfield, as star running back Bucky Irving will be back after injuries held him back last season while Kenny Gainwell is coming in to be his partner in crime out of the backfield.
On paper, the Buccaneers should have one of the best running back tandems in the league, especially when measuring up Irving and Gainwell from a pure three down perspective. Irving was a 1,100 yard rusher and a touchdown machine in the 2024 NFL season, and he can make an impact on passing downs. Meanwhile, Gainwell was Aaron Rodgers' best friend for the Pittsburgh Steelers as a safety valve out of the backfield, and he is all kinds of underrated on the ground.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers' RB duo is severely underrated
You would think that the fantasy gurus and NFL analytics wizzes around the league would be rating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back duo highly, but Irving and Gainwell are as liable to being snubbed as anyone else on the talented Buccaneers roster.
In his latest ranking of the NFL's best running back duos, via Sleeper NFL, ESPN analyst Mike Clay did not even rank the Buccaneers partnership of Bucky Irving and Kenny Gainwell in the top 15. Meanwhile, the New Orleans Saints washed-up duo of Travis Etienne and Alvin Kamara snuck in at No. 14 among other bizarre choices.
It seems like, at the heart of it, a lot of people are not believing in Bucky as a franchise running back despite what he showed everyone in 2024, just because he got dealt a bad hand with injuries in 2025. And Gainwell still can't get respect despite Aaron Rodgers endorsing him - and he usually hates everyone.
Baker Mayfield isn't the only one on the Buccaneers offense feeling the disrespect, and the running backs are going to go to war for him with the knowledge they have a lot to show to the rest of the NFL now, too.
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