The Tampa Bay Buccaneers offense is in dire straits, and Jalon Daniels' underwhelming debut against the Green Bay Packers was a real reminder to the Bucs faithful that these are deep-rooted issues here that go beyond Baker Mayfield struggling or who the quarterback is. Daniels wasn't even that bad for a rookie quarterback making his NFL debut and showed some honestly positive signs, but no matter what he tried, the Bucs offense just could not get going in a 17-14 defeat.
There has been a lot of focus on the passing game this season because of how badly the Bucs have played through the air, especially in comparison to where they should be in theory with players like Mayfield, Emeka Egbuka, Chris Godwin Jr., Jalen McMillan, and Tez Johnson.
But the Buccaneers rushing attack has also been a real disappointment. Bucky Irving has had a couple of decent games and has looked good in comparison to his quarterback under center, but, statistically speaking, the Bucs are in the bottom half of the NFL in rushing. And on Sunday in the loss to Green Bay, Irving was poor, only rushing the ball for 61 yards despite leading the team with 16 carries. Meanwhile, Jalon Daniels proved to be the most potent rushing threat with 55 yards on 8 carries.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers aren't making full use of their RB trio
Irivng is a good running back and the top dog for a reason, but the Buccaneers have three running backs on their roster. And those other running backs did step up on Sunday, scoring the only two touchdowns for the Bucs. Sean Tucker has been absent despite a great second half of the 2025 NFL regular season on an otherwise bad team, and he finally got his chances, making the most of them against the Green Bay Packers with a huge conversion on fourth down and then a bulldozing touchdown later.
Kenny Gainwell did what he was signed to do, too, scoring a touchdown through the air.
While the Buccaneers are in the bottom half of the league in rushing yardage, they're in the top 10 in rushing yards per attempt, despite playing with a bad passing attack. That should be a sign for the Bucs to run the ball more. Instead of forcing Bucky Irving to carry a bigger load, the Bucs need to open up things for Tucker and Gainwell, and the latter should be getting more targets, given he is a better safety valve with a lot more playmaking upside with the ball in his hands than one of the Bucs current leaders in targets, Cade Otton.
Gainwell has just 13 carries this season, and Tucker only got his first 3 touches on the ground this past weekend vs. Green Bay. And Gainwell is only averaging three targets per game out of the backfield in the passing game. Zac Robinson and the Buccaneers need to take the ball out of the hands of their struggling quarterbacks a bit more and use the quality of their three running backs.
Add us as a preferred source on Google