It’s a new era of ground attack in Tampa Bay.
For the first time in a long time, Doug Martin is not the man at the top of the Buccaneers depth chart. In fact, he’s not on the depth chart at all. That gave room for the Buccaneers to improve their rushing attack in the draft, hence the selection of USC running back Ronald Jones.
With Peyton Barber as the likely starting back and Charles Sims as a third down option, it’s not set how exactly Jones is going to be used to start the 2018 season. This week Mike Clay, who does fantasy football work for ESPN, gave his prediction of how he sees Jones being used in the passing game.
Who will lead the running back position in receptions this season? Here is every RB I have projected for 20+ catches in 2018 #ClayProjections pic.twitter.com/mYtTHju7q1
— Mike Clay (@MikeClayNFL) June 18, 2018
Clay has Jones with more receptions than any other back for the Buccaneers in 2018 (35), including Charles Sims (30). 35 is betting pretty high on Jones seeing as he only had 32 catches total in his three seasons at USC, but the math comes out to just over two catches per game.
Is 35 a realistic number for Jones?