After replacing a near-1,000-yard rusher with Kenneth Gainwell, Tampa Bay faces scrutiny. As injuries loom and rivals lean on dual-threat backfields, did the front office gamble too much?
Truth be told, it’s difficult to make much of anything that happens at OTAs, but that won’t stop people who follow the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and other teams from questioning some things.
One of them is: Should the Buccaneers have made more of an effort to keep Rachaad White?
White was with Tampa for four seasons, nearly rushing for 1,000 yards in 2023.
But when the time came for White to get a second contract after his rookie deal expired, he looked elsewhere, seeing the writing on the wall months before free agency opened. The Bucs accounted for the loss of White by signing Kenneth Gainwell, who was the Pittsburgh Steelers’ team MVP last season.
White, on the other hand, signed a modest one-year, $2 million deal with the Washington Commanders that could be worth twice that due to incentives.
White won’t make his Commanders debut until August and won’t make his regular-season debut until September, so right now, OTAs are all we have to go off of, and he looks pretty good, leading to the question: Did the Bucs make a mistake?
If all goes according to plan, Bucky Irving, who eclipsed 1,100 yards in his only healthy season thus far, will be a formidable one-two punch alongside Gainwell.
But durability is always a worry with running backs, and Irving didn’t have much of it in 2025.
He missed seven games with multiple injuries, and is currently recovering from an offseason surgery.
Although, if needed, Gainwell could fill Irving’s shoes as RB1 better than a lot of backups, a current league trend is for teams to have two capable backs each playing big roles.
Last year’s Super Bowl champions, the Seattle Seahawks, had two backs eclipse 700 yards (1,027 for Kenneth Walker III, 730 for Zach Charbonnet).
The team Seattle beat to win the Super Bowl had a similarly effective tandem, with Treveyon Henderson rushing for 911 yards and Rhanondre Stevenson adding 603 for the New England Patriots.
Had the Bucs kept White, they’d have a proven second option should something have happened to Irving or Gainwell.
With that said, not bringing White back made it easier to sign Gainwell, and if the Bucs had to choose between one, it’s hard to argue that the guy who had over 1,000 yards of total offense last season (Gainwell) wasn’t the better option.
In any case, whether or not the Bucs messed up by letting White walk can’t be answered during OTAs.
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