Four of the eighteen NFC Offensive Player of the Week awards during the 2024 season went to members of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Quarterback Baker Mayfield won it twice in the last month of the season as he led the Buccaneers on their annual demolition derby down the stretch. Bucky Irving, the top rookie running back in the NFL, also snared one in Week 13. Given how big of an impact they had on Tampa Bay's fourth-ranked offense, it was no surprise that Mayfield and Irving took home some individual hardware.
The fourth such award won by a Buccaneer in 2024 went to second-year running back Sean Tucker in Week Six. In a 51-27 thrashing of the Saints in New Orleans, Tucker ran 14 times for 136 yards and a touchdown and added three catches for 56 yards and another score. This honor wasn't nearly as predictable, given that Tucker didn't have more than nine touches in any other game in 2024, and in the five games leading up to that Superdome explosion he had a total of three touches.
The reason for this, of course, is that the Buccaneers also had Irving and Rachaad White in their backfield, and that was one of only two running back duos in the NFL to each surpass 1,000 yards from scrimmage in 2024. There are only so many footballs, as they say, to go around.
As the Bucs head into 2025, they still have the Irving-White backfield tandem to power their rushing attack. However, Head Coach Todd Bowles thinks their might be room for a third head on that monster. The latest evidence was Tucker's hard-charging 50-yard performance in the Bucs' preseason-opening 29-7 win over the Tennessee Titans on Saturday night.
"Sean brings us another explosive runner," said Bowles. "He's a game-breaker for us. He's got very good contact balance, he can break a lot of tackles, and he can naturally find holes. He's very fast, but he looks so smooth doing it that you can't really tell until he gets out in the open field, and then he's tough to bring down. He has great vision, and every opportunity he's gotten, he's shown. Like I keep telling the guys on offense, we've got to give him the ball more."