Rachaad White has been incredibly important to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' offense under offensive coordinator Dave Canales. It's honestly hard to image where they'd be this season without number one on the roster.
Certainly not where they are after Sunday: on top of the NFC South after a hard-fought 29-25 win over the Atlanta Falcons at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
And, in particular, it was a red-letter day for the second-year running back, who set a career best in a particular category: yards from scrimmage. White totaled 102 rushing yards on 25 carries and 33 receiving yards on 2 catches with a touchdown on Sunday.
His 135 scrimmage yards passed his second-best output of 119 yards from the Buccaneers' 39-37 loss to Houston, in which White tallied 73 rushing yards on 20 carries with 2 touchdowns and added 46 yards on 4 catches.
White has been heating up the last few weeks behind an offensive line that's beginning to play better as the year has gone on. White has eclipsed 100 rushing yards in two of the last three weeks and has gone over 100 yards from scrimmage in all three.
He's also taken a stranglehold on the position in 2023, taking 201 of the team's 269 handoffs to its running backs this year. He's turned that into 745 rushing yards and 419 receiving yards.
With four games to go against Green Bay, Jacksonville, New Orleans, and Carolina, there is a very good chance that White cracks the 1000-yard rushing and 500-yard receiving marks. That would be the most yards from scrimmage by a Tampa Bay running back since Doug Martin rolled up 1402 rushing yards and 271 receiving yards back in 2015.
And it would be tangible proof that Tampa Bay has found its featured running back that they can plan an offense for in 2024 and beyond - regardless of who ends up putting on the headset on the Buccaneers' sideline next season.
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