The Buccaneers surprisingly made the playoffs last year. As such, they ran back most of their core weapons on offense, let some aging vets go on the defense, and retooled through the draft. When all was said and done, they took three fantasy-relevant players, but only one in the top 100. Let’s break down their 2024 draft selections, shall we?
FULL 2024 TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS DRAFT RESULTS
| Round | Pick | Player | Pos | College |
| 1 | 26 | Graham Barton | OC | Duke |
| 2 | 57 | Chris Braswell | EDGE | Alabama |
| 3 | 89 | Tykee Smith | S | Georgia |
| 3 | 92 | Jalen McMillan | WR | Washington |
| 4 | 125 | Bucky Irving | RB | Oregon |
| 6 | 220 | Elijah Klein | OG | UTEP |
| 7 | 246 | Devin Culp | TE | Washington |
Round 3, Pick 92 Overall: Jalen McMillan, Wide Receiver, Washington
Talent:
McMillan does a good amount with the ball in his hand, and he runs faster than his 4.47 40-yard dash indicates. But, he needs a lot of scheming to get open, as he lined up a ton in the backfield, and was in motion in the backfield on a good percentage of his routes. He’s decent enough at tracking a ball deep, and he can block exceptionally well. However, I’m not really convinced that he will make it at the NFL level, unless he makes it to another team that does a ton of pre-snap motion, like a Shanahan disciple offense. He isn’t a one-trick pony, though, like Malachi Corley. He can get the ball downfield, but he mostly runs in a straight line, though he is a decent enough route runner. He has a ton of questions and is the guy I feel weirdest about trying to place in an ordinal rank.
NFL Comparison: Curtis Samuel
2024 Opportunity:
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers don’t have much in the way of opportunity in their offense, especially in the passing game. They were pretty set with Chris Godwin, Mike Evans, and Rachaad White receiving passes from Baker Mayfield, and all these players return in 2024. Here’s the part that sucks: McMillan is mostly a slot receiver when he isn’t getting manufactured touches out of the backfield. This sucks because the early indications out of Tampa Bay are that Chris Godwin, who played just 32% of snaps in the slot last season, will move back to the slot, where he averaged 58%, 58%, and 56% of his snaps from 2020 to 2022. With McMillan drafted as a slot receiver, and Godwin as the primary slot receiver… that doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for McMillan to cook. He seems to be a pick for the future and is blocked behind one of the league’s best slot receivers.
2024 Fantasy Football Outlook:
With McMillan slated to be a pure backup in 2024, I struggle to find any sort of enthusiasm for him as a fantasy football asset. Go ahead and ignore him in your redraft fantasy football leagues. It will take an injury to Chris Godwin and/or Mike Evans (which would necessitate a role change for Godwin) for him to have any sort of fantasy relevance in his rookie year.
TALENT:
2024 OPPORTUNITY:
2024 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK:
Round 4, Pick 125 Overall: Bucky Irving, Running Back, Oregon
Talent:
Bucky Irving is an interesting back, because down-to-down, there isn’t much to get excited about. He lets perfect be the enemy of good, frequently getting pulled down at or around the line of scrimmage trying to find the perfect hole. That being said, if you get him some space, or if he finds that perfect hole, he does a good enough job with contact balance and burst to get a nice chunk play, at least. That’s what makes him a curious case: if you looked just at his highlights, he’d look like a budding superstar. Unfortunately, he gives opposing defenses a ton of easy tackles and struggles to keep the team on schedule. His gather step is way too slow, and it allows pursuers to close the gap without doing much. That being said, his dead leg is great. If he has some space, he can do well, unfortunately, he struggles to make his own space. That’s something that he can work on, especially if he takes a tic off of his decision-making processing, and takes a step off of his gather. His dead leg is… well, deadly.
At the NFL level, he would be best suited as the 1B lighting in a thunder and lightning committee, who comes in on passing situations, as he has great hands and is good in open space. He has enough toughness and elusiveness to make it all work, he just doesn’t do much of the grinding that you would like to see out of running backs in the league. He will have a year where he ends up top-25 in PPR leagues because of 60+ catches, I just doubt that’s his rookie campaign.
NFL Comparison: Devin Singletary
2024 Opportunity:
This is where things get messy; Bucky Irving is a better football player than Rachaad White. However, Rachaad White already has a role in the offense as a pass catcher, where he has 128 targets through his first two years in the league (the seventh-most running back targets in the last two seasons). White also, unfortunately, isn’t much in the way of a runner, so I am not particularly sure where this leaves Irving in the Buccaneers’ pecking order. White, presumably, has the lead-back role down (for now), but Irving is the better player. Irving likely starts as a straight backup before carving out an increasingly large role for himself as the season progresses.
2024 Fantasy Football Outlook:
Bucky Irving will carve a role out for himself as the season progresses, the only question is if he usurps Rachaad White, and ends up as 1A, or 1B. I will stick firmly by the assertion that Bucky Irving is a better football player than Rachaad White and that you should tag him as a draft-and-stash sleeper while you await the inevitable (that a better player takes over the backfield). If it never emerges, it’s unlikely that you’ll do this in a single-digit round, so worse things have happened.
TALENT:
2024 OPPORTUNITY:
2024 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK:
Round 7, Pick 246 Overall: Devin Culp, Tight End, Washington (6’3”, 241 lbs)
Talent:
Devin Culp has some incredible highlight catches on his tape, and he is best suited as a red zone weapon in the NFL thanks to his ability to highpoint the ball and come down with his strong mitts. Outside of the end zone, he’s fast enough to press the issue, but not fast enough to be a true difference-maker in the passing game. He won’t make it past Cade Otton on the receiving depth chart this season, which says a lot.
NFL Comparison: Juwan Johnson
2024 Opportunity:
I doubt Culp will surpass 30 targets this season.
2024 Fantasy Football Outlook:
Do you want someone with 30 targets as his upside projection?
