ESPN has huge doubts over 1 Buccaneers position group
The Buccaneers might have work to do.
ESPN has huge doubts over 1 Buccaneers position group originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here . The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been a focus of the offseason due to Mike Evans leaving the franchise and going to the San Francisco 49ers .
But what he has left behind isn't all bad. Baker Mayfield still has plenty of weapons at receiver, and he still has Bucky Irving as his starting running back. So, the cupboard isn't exactly bare.
But with Rachaad White moving on in free agency, Tampa Bay had an opening, and it was one they filled with Pittsburgh Steelers running back Kenneth Gainwell. And it isn't a move that ESPN's Ben Solak likes too much. “The Gainwell addition,” Solak wrote .
“Bucky Irving was banged up for much of 2025, and the Buccaneers should be careful with his workload. But can Gainwell be an 18-plus-touch player if Irving misses a month? The Buccaneers did retain Sean Tucker, but three-headed backfields exist more in theory than in practice.