Quickly in front of all of us, Bucs running back Bucky Irving is becoming a star. He’s already a fan favorite amongst local fans, and week by week he is gaining more national recognition. Irving was named NFC Offensive Player Of The Week for his Week 13 performance when the Bucs beat the Panthers. He becomes the second Buc to win the award this season after Sean Tucker did it in Week 6 as the Tampa Bay defeated the New Orleans Saints.

Bucs RB Bucky Irving – Photo by: USA Today

Bucky Irving was fantastic in Tampa Bay’s 26-23 overtime win over the Carolina Panthers. He had a career high 25 rushing attempts for 152 yards and a rushing touchdown along with three catches for 33 yards in the game. This was all while he was dealing with a hip injury that kept him in and out of the game, including overtime.

Irving joins a special group in Bucs’ history after winning this award. He becomes the fifth Tampa Bay rookie to be named Offensive Player Of The Week, joining Chris Godwin (2017), Mike Evans (2014), Doug Martin (2012) and Warrick Dunn (1997).

While Irving was the best last week, he’s also been one of the best rookies this season as well. Per Bucs’ communications, Irving is the first rookie with 185 scrimmage yards, over 150 rushing yards and a touchdown in a game since De’Von Achane and Jahmyr Gibbs did it last season. This year, only Saquon Barkley (three times) and Derrick Henry (twice) have accomplished this.

Bucs RB Bucky Irving Photo by: USA Today

Adding to his great season, Irving leads all rookies in scrimmage yards (1,017) and rushing yards (732), while tying for the rookie lead in rushing touchdowns (six). Those are tied for the second-most among rookies, trailing only Marvin Harrison Jr. (seven). He also ranks fourth among all NFL players in yards per touch (6.1), trailing only Gibbs, Barkley and Henry (minimum 125 offensive touches).

Tampa Bay finally established Irving as the main rusher for their latest game and worked to perfection, as long as he can stay healthy moving forward.

Bucs RB Bucky Irving Gets Even More Accolades

The hits keep coming in a good way for Irving. On top of Player Of The Week, he was also given a shoutout from a number of NFL figures. Former Bucs Super Bowl head coach Jon Gruden, who’s made his Gruden Grinder segment very well known, has Irving listed as his number one Gruden Grinder for Week 13. Here is what he said about him.

Sticking with the topic of former Bucs Super Bowl winners, quarterback Tom Brady had Irving as one of his three stars of the week for his latest performance. He’s caught the attention of the future Hall of Famer.

Going to the conversation about rookies again. This week on Good Morning Football, Peter Schrager had Irving at fourth in his list of his top five rookies of the week. He was just ahead of Raiders tight end Brock Bowers, who the Bucs will play against in Week 14 at home.

The Bucs are treating every game for the rest of the season like it’s a playoff game. With a record of 6-6, they may need to win out or at worst go 4-1 down the stretch to reach the postseason. The strength of the Bucs on offense is their line and the running game, which has seen a gigantic improvement this year. Irving has been a huge reason why, and that needs to continue if the Bucs want to be successful.