The Tampa Bay Buccaneers left Bucky Irving fantasy football owners frustrated in the Week 15 loss to the Atlanta Falcons thanks to the running back's lack of usage near the goal line.
Irving was not on the field for the Bucs on multiple occasions when they got near pay dirt on Thursday night, with the team instead opting to utilize backup running back Sean Tucker in those situations.
The result was Tucker scoring a touchdown, which was obviously frustrating to fantasy football managers who have stock in Irving.
On Friday morning, FOX Sports reporter Greg Auman shed light on why the Bucs don't utilize Irving more in the red zone and near the goal line and it seemingly has to do with his lack of success in that area.
Auman noted that Irving has 16 combined red-zone touches and targets this season and has failed to gain a single yard on eight of them. He also has just one yard gained on three others and has posted two touchdowns.
"Irving has 16 touches/targets in the red zone. Failed to gain yards on eight of them. A single yard on three others. Two touchdowns in 16 plays. No other first downs. Not his strength. Shouldn’t get the ball more there," Auman explained.
Irving's lack of usage in the red zone and more specifically near the goal line amounts to a huge hinderance to his weekly upside.
If he isn't going to get many touchdown opportunities, it's going to make Irving even more dependent on yardage output, which isn't ideal.
This is not to say that Irving isn't still a viable starting option each and every week, because he most certainly is based on volume alone.
But expectations need to be tempered moving forward.
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