The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have had to rely on Rachaad White and Sean Tucker for most of the season now thanks to the injury to Bucky Irving.
Irving has been on the shelf since Week 5 with foot and shoulder issues, although the latter injury is considered the bigger problem.
While there was hope that Irving would return in Week 12, Buccaneers legend and Hall of Famer Ronde Barber stated that Irving is not going to play this week, so it looks like it'll be some combination of Tucker and White again.
White was dominating touches out of the backfield early on in Irving's absence, but things have slowly shifted as the season has progressed.
From Weeks 5 to 7, which were the first three games Irving missed, Tucker was barely involved and saw just 14 touches combined. However, over the last three games, Tucker has seen an uptick with 12, 10 and then 21 touches in Week 11.
Adding to that, Tucker had more touches than his backfield mate on Sunday, as White saw just 12. White did, however, out-snap Tucker, 42-31.
Last week's touch distribution and monster game from Tucker has led many to wonder if he might continue seeing the bigger share of the workload moving forward.
While Buccaneers offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard didn't confirm that Tucker will take the lion's share of work in Week 12, he did say that Tucker is going to continue to see an increased workload.
"I think what Sean has proven is he deserves more carries," Grizzard said. "From the time that he's played more with Buck out, he's really gotten more carries each week and I expect that to continue."
Not only did Tucker get more touches than White last week, he was simply the better back.
Tucker finished with 106 yards on 5.6 yards per carry, while White had 51 yards on 5.1 yards per carry. Over the last three games, Tucker has averaged 3.5, 5.9 and 5.6 yards per tote as compared to White's 2.7, 3.8 and 5.1.
It is very clear that Tucker has been the more effective player and offers an explosive element to Tampa Bay's offense that White doesn't.
As of right now, we would expect Tucker to once again lead the way in Tampa Bay's backfield in Week 12 against the New England Patriots.
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