Buccaneers' Star Returns to Practice For First Time This Offseason

The 2026 offseason has had it's ups and downs for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Although the team lost two franchise icons in Lavonte David, who retired, and Mike Evans, who opted to sign with the San Francisco 49ers in free agency, there were still plenty of positives to be taken away from how Bucs' GM Jason Licht managed his roster.

Not only did the Buccaneers address key positions of need through free agency with the signings of LB Alex Anzalone, DT A'Shawn Robinson, EDGE Al-Quadin Muhammad and RB Kenneth Gainwell, among others, but they also came away from this year's draft with a really impressive rookie class.

The biggest reason for optimism in Tampa Bay, though, may be based around health. 2025 was a disaster from an injury perspective, and the Buccaneers' inability to overcome those issues resulted in a catastrophic collapse to close out the season, ultimately resulting in the Bucs missing the playoffs for the first time since 2019 — Jameis Winston's final season in Tampa.

Although everything appeared to be trending in the right direction from an injury perspective this offseason for the Bucs, Todd Bowles' made some comments early in OTAs ago about the availability of star RB Bucky Irving coming off shoulder surgery, which caused an appropriate level of concern among the Buccaneers' faithful.

"He's coming along fine. He's working out, we expect him sometime back in the summer or fall and, you know, we look forward to it when he gets back," Bowles said.

Naturally, a lot of people found such a vague timeline to be somewhat concerning. Especially for a team that was feeling really good about their chances in the NFC South with a fully healthy roster.

Bucky Irving is Back

Thankfully, though, Bucky Irving was back on the field with his teammates on the final day of OTAs, just a couple of weeks after those cryptic comments from his head coach.

Bucky Irving back in action: pic.twitter.com/aQHF2rQSL1
— River Wells (@riverhwells) June 11, 2026

2025 was a very disappointing year, not only for the Bucs but for Bucky Irving as well. After rushing for over 1,100 yards and 8 TDs as a rookie in 2024 on just 207 carries, Irving established himself as one of the league's most explosive and promising young backs. Last year was a different story, though, as Irving missed seven games and rushed for a total of just 588 yards on the ground.

When healthy, Irving is a major difference maker. The same goes for the Buccaneers' offense as a whole, which became abundantly clear last year. And despite Bowles' ominous remarks just a couple of weeks ago, it appears as though Irving is well on his way to being fully healthy, which is great news for the Buccaneers and bad news for the rest of the NFC South.

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