Bucky Irving Camp Diary: I Hate Being Tackled

I’m familiar with our offense coming from Oregon. I think it’s pretty similar to what I ran [in college]. Coach Liam [Coen] and my OC [Will Stein] were pretty cool. They said they talked a lot. Just being in this offense, backs being able to catch the ball out of the backfield and being able to do multiple things in this offense and not coming out of the game when we go empty and things like that. Just seeing the variety of things that he does to get his backs the ball.

I like being flexed out as a receiver, too. I think that’s great. It’s just more opportunities to get the ball and not have to come out of the game. I thank my Oregon offensive coordinator for putting me in that position and putting that on film to showcase that I can do that at a high level.

Bucky Irving Gets Compared To Rams Pro Bowl RB Kyren Williams

I pretty much get the Kyren Williams comparison a lot, but I pretty much look around the league at smaller backs all the time and see how their game translated from college to the NFL. That boosts my confidence because people always told me I was too small to even get to where I’m at right now. I treat it as motivation and don’t let up. I also don’t get satisfied. I always keep working.

The guys I look at around the league are Devin Singletary, Jahmyr Gibbs, Bijan Robinson – pretty much all of the smaller guys that they didn’t think would have success, but they are. I like to look at all the smaller backs to see how my game is going to translate from college to the NFL. I’ve seen them have success, so I just want to stay humble and when my time is called, be ready.

My running backs coach, Coach Skip [Peete], has been great. He’s been around a lot of backs, so whenever he says me something I pretty much lock in because he knows what he’s talking about. He has been around the game for a long time. So having a coach like that in your corner that has seen a lot of backs and knows what he’s talking about, it’s always great being around those type of coaches.

Coach Skip will tell you straight up that he’s just going to coach you through the line of scrimmage. My abilities and my traits had to kick in from there. He doesn’t tell you how to run. He just coaches us through the line of scrimmage and helps us in pass protection. He teaches us what we need to execute and once we get out there on the field it’s up to us to execute them at a high level. It’s always great to get good feedback from the coaches, but I need to keep my head down and remain humble and keep working.

Bucky Irving: This Is My Job Now

Coming from college to the NFL, the playbook is pretty intense. There are a lot of things that they throw at you. But this is my job now. There’s no school. So you have all the time to put into your playbook. The more time I put in it, the better I’ll be at it.

It’s been great coming in with the other guys [in the running backs room]. They’ve been great to me ever since I got here. I don’t know my role right now or what I’m going to be for the team, so I’m just taking it day by day. Whenever my number is called, I’ll go out there and compete at a high level.

There are some good guys in that room like Chase Edmonds, who took me under his wing. If I have a question, he always shoots me back with the right response. When I make a read on a run, I always come back and ask him how I did on it. I have a good relationship with those guys.

I’m glad I’m here in Tampa. There aren’t any stuck up guys. There are guys willing to teach the young guys. They were rookies at one point in time. It’s always good to give back to the younger guys because they were once in my shoes. It’s been great to be around guys that have done it at a high level and be around those guys.

My roommate is D.J. Williams, he’s a PAC-12 guy from Arizona. When we got to the rookie mini-camp, he didn’t really say too much because he didn’t really know me. We went against each other in college and D.J. is a great person. We go over the plays together and we’ve got a connection from coming in together in the rookie mini-camp to rooming with each other now. D.J. is a great guy to be around.

If I had to describe my game, I would say it’s elusive, not letting the first man bring me down, and then it’s excitement when I’ve got my hands on the ball. I hate being tackled.

I’m not a big guy to set goals. I just want to win football games. I’m a team-first guy. I don’t really set goals. I just want to win and play at a high level.

Bucky Irving’s Message To Bucs Fans

It’s going to be great to suit up for that first Bucs preseason game. I’m going to try to go out there and show off and show the world what I’m capable of. When I score my first NFL touchdown, you’ll see me  just hand the ball to the ref and go to the sideline. I don’t really do any dances or anything like that.

I’m ready for camp, so let’s go out and have fun. Let’s go out and win some football games this year, Bucs fans.

Follow Bucky Irving On X: @buckyirving