Rachaad White spills the beans on chat he had with Bucky Irving about problem with Bucs’ offense in 2025
The Bucs’ running back got real about the problems with Tampa Bay’s offense this season.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers fell apart over the season’s second half, missing out on the playoffs for the first time since 2019 after losing seven of their last nine games.
When you lose that many games, there’s plenty of blame to go around. Todd Bowles’ defense was problematic, with the Bucs allowing far too many chunk plays down the stretch. Special teams was a disaster such that Bowles didn’t even want to risk allowing returns late in the season.
However, the offense had its fair share of problems as well. The Bucs’ offense looked like a shell of itself by the end of the year despite getting mostly healthy. Josh Grizzard was fired after the season after just one year, and the Bucs are looking for their fourth offensive coordinator in four years.
While some saw Bowles as perhaps passing the buck by firing five assistants, Grizzard’s game plan was a head scratcher late in the season.
And it’s not just Bucs fans questioning it. Running back Rachaad White went on the “Loose Cannons” podcast and talked about how the Bucs should have been getting the ball to their playmakers in simpler situations.
Bucs RB Rachaad White says offensive game plan should have included easy passes to the running backs and playmakers
“I think we were trying to get everybody the ball or in the right manner or in the right way,” White said. “Do this and do that. I just don’t think it went as planned. We had some tough injuries for sure that go down that o line, but I would say guys that stepped in, to me — and I’m not being biased, I’m just being real — I think they held their own a good amount of the time.”
While White talked about the injuries, he did mention how Grizzard’s offense was more complicated than what it should have been.
He also talked about a chat he had with Bucky Irving regarding a missing key element that former Bucs offensive coordinator Dave Canales implemented to get things going when he was in Tampa Bay— easy pitches and catches to White and his teammates.
“I think probably just try to make things more complicated than what it is and what it was, I think, is kind of what I would say. I think some of the guys we got, too. You could just get the ball in their hands and let them out in space, and just let them create and let them get in a flow and rhythm and things like that.
“I was talking to Bucky (Irving) about it. I was telling him about, he was asking me, and I was like, when I played with (Dave) Canales two years ago, sometimes you would just start the game off with a wide pass, like a screen-type pass. And he’d just get you the ball, and make some shake sometimes, or sometimes you probably don’t, but just get like an easy — you know how they say. Just like a pitch and catch. For [Baker Mayfield], too. Like, not even just for the running backs, but just for Bake. Like, sometimes it’s just getting some easy — you know what I’m saying — completions and stuff like that.”
It’s an argument that’s hard to argue with. Baker Mayfield never seemed to find the rhythm that we’ve seen in earlier seasons. The Bucs’ running backs also weren’t utilized enough in the passing game, a particular strength of both Irving and White.
White, a free agent, will most likely be on a new team in 2026, as he’s all but said on social media that he’s heading out of town. However, the Bucs will still have plenty of talent in house for whoever succeeds Grizzard as offensive coordinator, particularly if Mike Evans re-signs this offseason.
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