2024 Rookie Profile: RB Bucky Irving (Fantasy Football)

Let’s call a spade a spade; the RBs in the 2024 draft class don’t wow. There is no Breece Hall or Bijan Robinson in this draft, making the existence of a consensus 1.01 RB debatable. But as Jason says, don’t hear what I’m not saying; that doesn’t mean all of these RBs won’t have solid NFL careers. But remember, it is fantasy football we play. We are looking for those RBs who will carry our fantasy rosters to championships, not our favorite professional teams. 

With the 2024 NFL Draft approaching, it is time to dig deep into the rookie class. For this series, the writers at The Fantasy Footballers will be covering many of the top prospects in the 2024 class. We will look at each player’s production profile, measurables, and film to give an outlook for fantasy football in 2024 and beyond. Having no clear-cut RB1 makes scouting even more enjoyable this season; opinions and takes can vary wildly, and landing spots are even more crucial. Let’s take a look at ​​Mar’Keise Irving, better known as Bucky. 

Editor’s Note: This article is part of our Rookie Profile series going on until the 2024 NFL Draft. For more on each rookie, check out Andy, Mike, and Jason’s exclusive rookie rankings and the production profiles found only in the Dynasty Pass, part of the UDK+ for 2024.

College Production Profile

We are nearing the end of the high school and college cycle of RBs drastically affected by the COVID pandemic, and Irving is no exception. Irving attended Hillcrest High School in Illinois but did not play football in his senior year in 2020 due to COVID. Irving committed to the University of Minnesota, where, as a true freshman in 2021, he finished with 699 yards rushing and four TDs.

After his season in the Great White North, he transferred to the University of Oregon, where we started to see him blossom. During his first season at Oregon, he played 13 games and ran for 1,052 yards. He rushed for five TDs and caught three more. 2023 rolled around, and Irving became the clear RB1 on a heavily touted Oregon offense. Even as the presumed RB1, he did not have a fantastic dominator rating, coming in at 18% (share of team total yards and TDs per game). He was used more in Oregon’s rushing attack; he had 44% of the team’s rushing attempts per game.

He improved on almost all his metrics in his final year at Oregon over his 2022 season. He had more yards on the ground, rushing attempts, receiving yards, and total TDs. Finally, Irving has a breakout age of 20, considered solid in our breakout profile.

Measurables

Get your ready. Bucky Irving is fun to watch.

Tune-In: #NFLCombine on @nflnetwork #GoDucks pic.twitter.com/ChoNkyZgqu

— Oregon Football (@oregonfootball) March 2, 2024

What’s on Tape

Games Viewed: Washington (2023), USC (2023), Texas Tech (2023), Colorado (2023)

1. Pass Catching

We all know that a running back who can catch the football is worth their weight in gold. Enter Bucky Irving. Irving had the most targets of any RB in his class this season with 61 – only two other RBs had 40 or more targets.

Irving didn’t just get the targets – he caught the targets. Among RBs in his draft class with at least 25 targets, Irving has the fifth-highest catch rate, pulling in just over 90% of his targets. He converted those receptions to almost 400 yards. The consistency of his pass-catching is also something to note. In his only year at Minnesota, he only had nine targets but caught them all, and in his first year at Oregon, he caught 30 of 35.

The man has excellent hands – in his three years in college, he only had one fumble in 570 touches. If you get the ball to Irving, chances are he will gain yards and hold onto the ball.

2. Quick Feet

Even though Irving didn’t have a great showing at the combine when it comes to speed – he was 14th among 20 RBs in the 40-yard dash – his ten-yard split was tied for eighth among that RB group. Irving’s ability to accelerate quickly is seen in his tape as he eyes a running lane and puts down the pedal to squeak through.

This might be the one place where his small size does help – Irving can squeeze through holes that bigger backs might avoid and quickly turn on the gas as soon as he finds that hole, which he does because he has…

3. Fantastic Vision and Will Not Give Up

Irving has great vision when waiting for rushing lanes to develop and is decisive when he chooses his path. Sometimes, this ends with a loss and the play quickly shuts down, but it has also led to big plays. He does not give up – there is something about the fact that he is smaller that makes it easier to slip in and out of tackles. There were several times when I was watching his game tape when I was sure he would be stopped for a loss, and he snuck through and managed to drag a few defenders with him for a couple of yards.

His contact balance is superb, and he had 651 yards after contact in his final year at Oregon, which is the 11th-highest among RBs in his class.

What’s Not on Tape

1. Size

Irving is one of the lightest in his class – he officially weighed in at 192 lbs in Indianapolis. Don’t let the success of 188 lb De’Von Achane fool you – Achane is an outlier. Traditionally, RBs who weigh less than 200 pounds have trouble garnering long-term fantasy success in the NFL, which puts up a red flag when looking at Irving as a prospect. Of the NFL RBs who have played in the last 20 years and came in under 200 pounds, there have only been 11 performances of seasons with 200 or more fantasy points. Ray Rice has four of those seasons, and Chris Johnson has three. Irving’s size severely limits how teams can utilize him; he is not a three-down RB in the NFL.

2. Long Speed

Although Irving can find the holes and accelerate quickly, he seems to lose that burst. We saw it in the 40 at the combine – he had the initial burst but couldn’t hold the pace. Even if Irving can find the hole, he will get run down in the NFL.

Fantasy Outlook

After a combine where he did very little to improve his draft stock, Irving looks like the type of RB who could be looking at third-round draft capital, and we know that draft capital plays a crucial part in fantasy relevance. He will not be an every down back due to his smaller stature, but we have seen smaller-stature players like Jahmyr Gibbs make their presence known as a change-of-pace option. Irving is not Gibbs, by any means, but if he is going to give us fantasy production, this would be his best route – landing on a team that already has a solid three-down RB.

Currently, he comes in with a ranking of 85 on NFL Mock Draft Database and their consensus Big Board. That probably means he hears his name at some point in the third round of the NFL draft. The chance of Irving supplying fantasy goodness in a redraft league in his rookie season is slim, but he is worth having on your radar in case he has the perfect landing spot. Dynasty brings a little more flexibility, but there is still concern about his size and the fact that his speed seems like it needs to be faster to compensate. His relative athletic score is bad, but so was Kyren Williams‘ – so that might be enough of a reason for you to throw a dart.

Add Bucky Irving to the “poor testing but I’m intrigued” category

Last 2 college yrs:
Kyren Williams 415-2127-27 rush
77 receptions
3.8 yards after contact
58 missed tackles forced 2021

Irving 342-2238-16
87 receptions
3.9 yards after contact
63+ MTF each of last 2 yrs

but pic.twitter.com/Kgcjjw6jQY

— Jeff Mueller, PT, DPT (@jmthrivept) March 2, 2024