The busy season for Fantasy Football is upon us. Now that the NFL preseason has completed, leagues are ramping up activity with rosters and depth charts being a little more set in stone. One of the teams that managers have been targeting players on in recent years is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Their wide receiver duo of Mike Evans and Chris Godwin have been very popular targets. They are both consistent and productive, which is a dream for Fantasy Football owners earlier in drafts.
In the 2023 season, another valuable player emerged from the Buccaneers’ offense: running back Rachaad White. At a volatile position for fantasy production, White was amongst the most productive players last season because of volume and health.
He was able to play in all 17 games for a second consecutive season, handling 272 carries for 990 yards and six touchdowns. While woefully inefficient, he more than made up for it with his receiving production.
White caught 64 passes for 549 yards and three more scores, a gold mine in PPR leagues.
However, some Fantasy Football experts caution that the Buccaneers playmaker should be avoided in drafts this year because of his skyrocketing ADP.
Over at PFF, Nathan Jahnke highlighted the risks of selecting White in your draft this year. Jahnke is most worried about his lack of efficiency.
“However, White’s rushing efficiency was below average for the position. He moved the chains less frequently and broke off fewer big plays than other running backs.
While it’s easy to point to the offensive line as a reason for White’s inefficiency—and it did play a role, as he experienced perfectly blocked plays less often than most running backs—the fact remains that even on perfectly blocked plays, his yards per carry average was lower than those of many other running backs in the league,” Jahnke wrote.
That is certainly not what you want to hear about a player who is being selected as an RB1 by most managers. Lack of reliable options behind White last season played a part in his big workload for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
That may not be the case in 2024 after the team selected Bucky Irvin out of Oregon in the fourth round of the 2024 NFL Draft. However, the high-value touches should still be White’s even if Irvin cuts into his early down work.
“White is the taller, more significant back of the two, so even if Irving cuts into White’s playing time on early downs, White could remain in control of the goal-line snaps and short-yardage situations. And while Irving showed some promise as a receiver, White has been more efficient in that area, so it’s less likely White will lose the receiving job,” wrote Jahnke.
There are certainly some questions about selecting White as high as he is going, near the top of the fourth round. Volume, which was the catalyst in his break out 2023, is chief among them. If he starts seeing the ball less, his Fantasy Football production will suffer unless he can improve his efficiency.
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