Running Back · Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Bucky Irving

No. 7 · 3rd season

The worry was real. The update out of June is a different story.

When your head coach says "summer or fall" and leaves it at that, people start doing the math. For Bucky Irving, a running back with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers working his way back from a shoulder injury, those words landed with some weight.

Irving had been building something real in Tampa. As a running back, your value lives in your availability — you have to be on the field, every week, to matter. A shoulder injury and a vague return window is the kind of thing that quietly shifts how a team plans.

Then June happened. General manager Jason Licht said Irving would be ready to go if games were starting in a couple of weeks. That is not a "summer or fall" answer. That is a guy who is close.

The difference between those two statements is meaningful — not just for Irving's season, but for how the Buccaneers think about their backfield going into the year. The concern was real. Right now, so is the recovery.

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