Kenneth Gainwell — Week 1: Six Touches, and Third and One Stopped
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 14
Gainwell carried five times for fifteen yards and caught his one target for three, and the carry that stands out is third and one at the Cincinnati thirty-three with six thirty-two left in the third quarter, off left tackle for no gain. A defensive offside on the next snap gave Tampa Bay the first down anyway. He also returned a kickoff twenty-two yards in a 33–27 loss to the Bengals.
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Kenneth Gainwell's most important carry Sunday gained nothing. Third and one at the Cincinnati 33, six 32 left in the third quarter, Buccaneers down 27 to 10: off left tackle for no gain. By expected points added — what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — that was −1.2, the worst of his six touches, and it made a fourth and one. Tampa Bay never had to convert it: on that snap Cincinnati jumped offside on a short completion to Gainwell that did not count, and the five yards did. Tampa Bay kicked a 51-yard field goal from that drive.
Five carries, 15 yards, one of the five successful. The good one was second and six at the Tampa Bay 38 with one oh three left in the first quarter, right tackle for seven and a first down. The others went two, two, no gain and four, three of them in the third quarter on the same drive. One target, one catch, three yards, on the snap after the false start that opened the second quarter — first and 15 at the Cincinnati 47. The six touches together came out at −1.5 expected points.
Where he sat: five carries to Bucky Irving's eight, and Baker Mayfield had five as well, four of them scrambles. Irving was thrown to seven times; Gainwell once. In a game Tampa Bay threw 28 times and ran 20, the running-back work went 15 touches to Irving and six to Gainwell. He also returned a kickoff 22 yards to the Tampa Bay 25, tackled by Samaje Perine.
Back in June the preview's read was that a 73-catch career year in Pittsburgh would shrink to a complementary third-down role behind Irving in Tampa. Sunday shrank it further than that — one target — and the third-down work that came his way was a run that did not get a yard. One game does not set a role, and Sean Tucker was inactive, per Joshua Queipo at Pewter Report, so the third-back question was not even on the field. Tampa Bay is home to the Browns on Sunday the twentieth. Watch whether the passing-down targets exist at all.
_Data via nflverse._
When Kenneth Gainwell's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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