Bucs running back Rachaad White isn’t shy about his and the team’s expectations for 2024. White appeared on Tuesday’s edition of the Rich Eisen Show, with goals and expectations serving as the primary point of conversation. After a 9-8, NFC South-winning 2023 season, White is ready to see his team take the next step forward this fall.

“When I just look at our roster and our team, I just like how we match up against a lot of teams and every game,” the third-year running back told Rich Eisen. “It just comes down to our playmakers and us being locked in that day, any given Sunday, for us to win.

“I was listening in on a call, I don’t know who he was, but that’s good that they believe (the 49ers) are going to go 15-2 and things like that. I mean, our team and I believe that we’re gonna go like 13-4 or 12-5 and things like that.”

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The @Buccaneers running back talked goals entering his third #NFL season and what the team’s mindset is after winning a playoff game in 2023:#WeAreTheKrewe pic.twitter.com/RpwcG2ZLOS

— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) July 9, 2024

White was referencing a caller on Tuesday’s show who said San Francisco would win 15 games in 2024. The defending NFC champions are still the class of the conference, but if White’s belief and expectations are to come to fruition, the Bucs will be right up there near the top of the NFC themselves.

Bucs RB Rachaad White – Photo by: USA Today

There was a time in the not-so-distant past when predicting a season with double-digit wins for the Bucs was based largely on blind hope and not a lot of reason. But when Tom Brady arrived in 2020, he not only led Tampa Bay to its second-ever Super Bowl. He also helped change the culture.

The Bucs have the longest active playoff appearance streak in the NFC, and after staying afloat after Brady’s departure and three-peating as division champions last year, seeing Todd Bowles and Co. take the next step up and cross into double-digit wins in 2024 isn’t the wildest prediction.

Now, one caller on Monday’s episode of the Rich Eisen Show maybe went a little overboard when he said Tampa Bay would go 17-0 and then win the Super Bowl, making it a 20-0 perfect season. But when Rachaad White was asked about that prediction, he took it as an opportunity to make a statement, and the statement was that times have changed in Tampa Bay.

“That’s our goal, man. That’s our goal. We saw how we finished off at the end of the season, man, so it’s nothing but good vibrations, good vibes coming in this year,” White said. “And that’s what we feed off of. Like I said, we, the Bucs have been a slept-on team for years. We’ve had our trials and tribulations — obviously I’m gonna say ‘we’ now because I’m here and I know the history of it. But times have changed.

“Now it’s time for us to take that next step. Like I said, I won eight games my rookie year and won nine last year. It’s time to take that step to get well over that and not just barely make the playoffs and barely win the division. (We need to) win the division how I know we should win the division.”

Rachaad White Discusses His Personal Goals For 2024

Bucs RB Rachaad White – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Eisen asked Rachaad White what his goals were for the 2024 season, but in true Rachaad White fashion, he talked about his team and what he can do to help it win before getting into any specifics on his personal objectives are for the new season.

“The biggest goal, obviously, we want to win. I won eight games my rookie year, nine games last year,” White said. “We’re at least trying to [add three more to] that total this year. I’m looking for us to win at least 12 or 13 games. Obviously, a lot of people are not. But it is what it is. I know my team and what I believe in.”

When he shifted toward explaining his own goals, White focused a lot on his desire to reverse a trend that has been troubling the Bucs for years now. He wants to get the run game out of the depths of the league.

“My goal is to just to do whatever I can to help the team win. We’ve been last (in rushing) — or 25th to last — the past five or six years, even with the Super Bowl,” White said. “When it comes to rushing, Tampa Bay has been down bad. My goal and what I expect me to do is turn that around and us to be top 10 to top 15, top 12 at the minimum.”

Over the last eight seasons, Tampa Bay has finished 24th, 27th, 29th, 24th, 29th, 26th, 32nd (dead last) and 32nd (dead last again) in rushing. The 2015 season was the last time the Bucs were in the top half of the league in rushing (they were fifth with 135.1 yards per game), and that was also the last time the franchise had a 1,000-yard rusher (Doug Martin finished with 1,402 yards). White wants to change that in 2024.

Bucs RB Rachaad White – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“And then obviously there’s not been a 1,000-yard rusher in like, what, nine years,” he said. “Obviously I was 10 yards short of that last year. So I’m gonna make sure I’m not nearby short of that this year and go well over that 1,000 yards. And then the scrimmage yards are just gonna speak for themselves just because I’ve always been good catching the ball and being able to run routes out of the backfield.

“I got Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, we got J-Mac (Jalen McMillan), we got Trey Palmer… I’ve got a lot of guys with a lot of speed on the outside and they do what they do for themselves. So a bunch of them dump offs, I’m out in space and I’m taking myself over a lot of defenders any day of the week.”

White’s 1,542 all-purpose yards in 2023 was the fourth-most among NFL running backs, and he’ll look to build on that this season. His first career 1,000-yard season and another 500-600 receiving yards could go a long way in reviving the run game and taking the Bucs offense to the next level. And the offense reaching that next level may just get Tampa Bay to the 12 or 13 wins White is envisioning as the team takes the next step this season.