Bucky Irving: I'm not satisfied with how I played as a rookie

Bucky Irving made a big impact on the Buccaneers during his rookie season, but he's not looking for more of the same in 2025.

Irving picked up 1,514 yards from scrimmage, scored eight touchdowns and ranked fourth in the league in yards per carry after being selected in the fourth round of the draft. A repeat of that would be welcome in Tampa, but Irving said recently that he knows you have to keep finding ways to grow in the NFL.

“I feel like once you always start something new, it’s going to have to slow down for you a little bit,” Irving said, via PewterReport.com. “When I first got thrown in, the game was moving pretty fast for me but yeah, as I just settled down and let the game – and just think about it like, ‘it’s just football.’ And not think about too [many] other things that are going on out there. But yeah, just always going back and looking at the film and looking at things that you can get better at and improve in and also not getting satisfied and stuck in last year, because it’s a new year. Nobody cares about what you did last year. It’s, ‘What can you do for me now?’ But I’ve always been that guy that pretty much never gets stuck in the past and always [am] where my feet [are] and work hard every day.”

The Bucs added more depth to their receiving corps by drafting Emeka Egbuka in the first round and the prospect of teaming a strong passing attack with a rising star in Irving should lead to a lot of thoughts of another NFC South title this year.