The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were one of the NFL's youngest teams in 2023, an unsurprising result given the very limited cap space team architects were working with as they fleshed out the roster in the offseason. The Buccaneers broke training camp with 13 rookies on the roster – almost exactly a quarter of the 53-man total – and relied heavily on a handful of them throughout the season. That's yet another reason the Bucs' run to the Divisional Round of the playoffs, while ultimately not the ending they were seeking, was an impressive accomplishment.
But it wasn't just the rookies who took on key roles for a playoff-bound team. The Bucs saw several other young players take a higher percentage of snaps, adding to the youthful tilt of Tampa Bay's snap-weighted roster age.
Bill Barnwell's research that takes into account not just the ages of each player on a team's roster but also how much time they actually spent on the field shows the Bucs to have had the fourth-youngest offense, 13th-youngest defense (hey, we're glad Lavonte David and Will Gholston were still around) and the eighth-youngest roster overall.
Two of the young players who contributed to that were 2022 draft picks Rachaad White and Zyon McCollum. White took over as the team's Day One starter in the backfield and accounted for 75.6% of the Bucs' running back carries while also getting 70 targets in the passing game. McCollum started nine games during the regular season to help the Bucs weather the storm during injuries to starting corners Carlton Davis and Jamel Dean, and when both Davis and Dean got healthy at the same time, he started working in a hybrid safety role.
Both White and McCollum clearly took that "Year Two Leap" that all NFL coaches hope to see from their promising young prospects. White fell just 10 yards shy of his first 1,000-yard rushing season and also finished fourth among all NFL running backs with 1,539 yards from scrimmage. This came after a rookie season in which he didn't take the starting job from Leonard Fournette until midseason and topped out at 771 yards from scrimmage, less than half his Year Two total.
"It was great to see him grow from a mental standpoint," said Head Coach Todd Bowles a day after the Bucs' 2023 run ended in Detroit. "He was always talented, physically. Being a running back is not just carrying the football and running and trying to find daylight. He's got to know where the hole is before the hole opens. He's got to know where the blocking is, he's got to know how to pick up pressures. He runs pass routes; he does a lot of things."
White didn't make all of his growth during his first full NFL offseason. In fact, his rushing output early in the 2023 season was a bit of an issue for a Bucs offense that was trying to find its identity under new Offensive Coordinator Dave Canales. White took well to the tutelage of his position coach, Skip Peete, and became much more reliable as a runner as the season progressed.
"From a growth standpoint and a mental standpoint where he was frustrated early in the first few weeks, he kind of eased into it and figured it out," said Bowles. Skip did a heck of a job coaching him and Rachaad is going to be a heck of a football player – he already is, but mentally, just knowing where the holes are and playing faster and playing smarter. He got a lot better at protecting the football where he let a few go early in the season. You can't say enough about his growth. You could see it as the weeks went on, as the months went on. I'm very proud of where he is."
McCollum was an ace special team's player as a rookie, with a blend of size and speed that is perfect for that role. He was always destined to continue in that capacity in 2023, but it wasn't clear what his path to playing time on defense would be. The Buccaneers gave big new contracts to Davis and Dean over the past two off seasons and found a new slot corner in undrafted rookie Christian Izien. But teams rarely make it through a 17-game season (19 in this case) with the same two healthy corners, so a viable third option at the position is a very valuable commodity.
While he finished the regular season with almost exactly the same number of special teams snaps as the year before (227 to 228), McCollum nearly tripped his playing time on defense, going from 277 snaps to 785. He finished fifth on the team with 64 tackles and tied for second with nine passes defensed while also forcing two fumbles. When asked which players on the Bucs' defense who showed the most surprising improvement in 2023, Bowles considered a few possibilities before landing on McCollum as his choice.
"I don't know if anybody surprised me," said Bowles. "Most improved…before Mike Greene got hurt, he was playing good football. I thought Logan Hall came a good, long way. Zyon McCollum would probably win that – as far as most improved from last year to this year – the versatility he showed, the toughness he showed. As mild-mannered as he is off the field, he plays like a rocket when he's on the field. I really loved what he did this year."
Both second-year players were heavily involved in the Bucs' two-game playoff run. White had 166 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown in those two games combined. McCollum played both cornerback and safety in different situations and contributed nine tackles. Both also figure to remain key contributors for the Bucs for at least the next few years. As Bowles said on Monday, the Buccaneers can improve in every area from this year to next, and that's true for individual players like White and McCollum, too. But they've already made the one big leap that put them on the track to becoming core Buccaneer players.
