Buccaneers' Rookie Ready for Bigger Role on Offense
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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers selected running back, Rachaad White, with the 91st overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft with hopes that he would be a great compliment next to Leonard Fournette in the Bucs' offense. After a slow start to gradually get up to the NFL speed, White seems to be grasping his opportunities with ease. In his last performance against the Seattle Seahawks in Munich, Germany, the rookie posted his best rushing performance of his young career going for 22 carries and 105 yards.
White has been slowly getting acclimated to earning more touches in the Bucs' offense, but in his first career start, he put his abilities on display. It wasn't anything mind-blowing, but the way White was able to take a lackluster run game and change it into something that will make the opposing defense have to respect is huge for what the Bucs want to do.
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With Leonard Fournette possibly not 100% heading into the matchup with the Browns and the ever-growing sense that White can provide more to the offense right now than Fournette, the team is looking at giving him a bigger role within the offense.
Per Bucs' offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich on expanding White's role,
"I think it was excellent to see him go out there and play an extended amount of snaps," Leftwich said Thursday, via the Tampa Bay Times. "I don't know if he was ready for that many earlier. We saw the gifts that he had early but … we're here with him every day, so we knew we had to get him to the point he could handle that type of load. He's there now.
"So it was good to see him go out and play and show the skill set that he's got, show the skill set that we like."
It appears that White has definitely earned himself the touches to lead the Bucs' backfield. Luckily enough for White, he will be going up against one of the least successful defenses when it comes to stopping the run on Sunday against the Cleveland Browns. If he is able to replicate what he did against Seattle, we could see White have another career day while adding on a score on top of it.
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