Disrespectful Appreciation Of Bucky Irving
June 23rd, 2025
So two guys employed by the NFL sat around talked about how special Bucky Irving is but were just fine ranking him as a middle-of-the-pack starting running back.
What?
Well, Joe has come to expect this kind of nonsense from Nick Shook and Gregg Rosenthal. They gathered on Rosenthal’s popular NFL Daily podcast to rank the league’s running backs.
Irving has “the highest rate of forced missed tackles in the entire league,” per Rosenthal’s NFL data.
“Over 5 yards per carry on inside runs and outside runs,” he bellowed.
Still Rosenthal game Irving a No. 14 ranking and followed it up by making himself look moronic.
“The advanced numbers and the raw numbers would actually tell you he was already like a top-8 to top-10 back. I’m not ready to go there, but I’m happy to put him [here],” Rosenthal said of Irving.
Joe’s not sure what to say. So reality, per Rosenthal, puts Irving in the group of top-10 running backs but Rosenthal can’t bring himself to say it.
Shook added that Irving ninth “in success rate behind Saquon Barkley by .1 percent,” and he raved about how many “yards over expected” Irving had, but Shook didn’t quibble with the No. 14 ranking for Bucky.
Joe will add that Irving ranked fourth among running backs in yards per carry (5.4), and he ranked No. 2 in the NFL in catch rate. That means Irving caught 90.7 percent of the balls thrown his way.
What more does Irving have to do to be universally accepted as a top-10 running back?
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