Bucky Irving

Bucky Irving finished 2025 as the number 34 running back in total PPR scoring but the number 18 running back in PPR per game among backs with six or more outings. That gap tells the whole story before we open the hood — Irving was a productive per-game asset when he played. He only played ten games. That absence dragged the season-long line down. When he was on the field, he was Tampa's lead back in a committee with Rachaad White, and he flashed real receiving juice in a Baker Mayfield offense that loved to dump him the ball in space. But the rushing efficiency underneath the box score is where this season gets complicated.

Now let's dig into the numbers. Irving carried it 173 times for 588 yards — a 3.4 yards per carry average that, in context, is genuinely rough. The advanced data confirms it wasn't bad luck: minus 126 rushing yards over expected on the season, minus 0.74 per attempt, 49th among qualified runners. Bottom of the barrel. The receiving work is where he made his fantasy money — 30 catches on 35 targets for 277 yards and three receiving touchdowns, with 360 total yards after the catch and an 11 percent target share. His 13.8 PPR per game average masks a real boom-or-bust split: his first four games went 14.5, 18.1, 13.9, and 25.5, a steady-to-ceiling stretch. Over his last six games after returning, he cleared 11 PPR just twice and posted single digits three times, including a 7.1 at Carolina and an 8.3 at Miami. That is a back grinding for volume without the efficiency to reward it, and only one rushing touchdown across 173 carries underlines how little he cashed in at the goal line.

The play that captures Irving's 2025 best is the 72-yard touchdown catch against the Eagles in Week 4 — second and seven, third quarter, Tampa down 13 to 31, Mayfield hits him on a deep shot left and Irving turns 24 air yards into 48 yards after the catch for the score. That one play was worth nearly six expected points and powered his 25.5-PPR ceiling game of the year. It's the perfect snapshot of why his per-game rank stayed respectable even as the rushing grind got muffed — when Tampa let him work in space as a receiver, he smashed. Between the tackles, the math stopped working.