Bucky Irving breaks silence on Rachaad White Buccaneers trade rumors

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have thoroughly improved the roster during the 2025 offseason. Tampa Bay retained key veterans like Chris Godwin and added young talent like Emeka Egbuka. The Buccaneers are rumored to be considering a trade involving one of their offensive weapons.

Buccaneers running back Bucky Irving appeared on Up & Adam with Kay Adams on Friday.

Irving opened up about the trade rumors surrounding his teammate Rachaad White. Adams asked Irving what he thinks about the possibility of Tampa Bay trading away White.

“Nah man, I feel like he’s good where he’s at, it’s a great one-two punch” Irving said. “We’ve got a lot of great running backs in our room who could go anywhere and be starters. But how I think about the game… I had three really good running backs at Oregon and we always used to rotate. And we pretty much just go into the game and feel like whenever your opportunity is, you’ve just got to go out there and compete for your brother. It’s not oh he’s starting or nothing like that, it’s just go out there and compete for your brother.”

The Buccaneers drafted Bucky Irving in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft.

Irving and White shared the backfield during the 2024 season. The two backs work very well together and clearly have good rapport with one another.

Adams agrees that Irving and White are a good combination. She made a plea to Tampa’s front office to keep both of them around for the 2025 season.

“[Buccaneers GM] Jason Licht, I’m saying it, we’ve got to find a way to not deal [White] because I would not like to see him leave Tampa Bay,” Adams concluded.

Is Bucky Irving poised to take over the Buccaneers backfield in 2025?

Irving and White are an excellent one-two punch in Tampa’s backfield. However, it seems clear that Irving is the team’s future at the position.

Irving burst onto the scene in 2024. He started the season as White’s backup and continued to earn more and more playing time because of his excellent production.

Bucky finished the 2024 season with 207 carries for 1,122 yards and eight touchdowns. He also added 47 receptions for 392 receiving yards.

It is fair to say that he has already supplanted White as the team’s starter.

White is much less efficient than Irving when running the football. His best season came in 2023 when he had 272 carries for 990 yards and six touchdowns. He had fewer yards than Irving did in 2024 and had almost 70 additional carries.

The Buccaneers can still use White as a complement to Irving in 2025.

However, because he is in the final year of his rookie contract, this may be his final season in Tampa Bay.