Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Rachaad White is entering his third NFL season looking to improve on his sophomore season totals of 990 yards and six touchdowns.
White is not resting on his laurels, in fact he’s looking for respect.
White recently spoke with buccaneers.com’s Brianna Dix where he spoke about his plans for the upcoming season and new offensive coordinator Liam Coen.
“If you are a guy in this league, you want to be a guy that is scouted for and respected,” White stated. “I have seen that, and people just leaving me out. I saw that and wanted to make the most and make people fear me, make people respect me and to say when I come in the game, ‘It is not just 13 [Mike Evans], 14 [Chris Godwin]. [No. 1] you have to worry about, too.'”
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White knows he needs to be more efficient.
“Right now, I’m not where I want to be in my career yards per carry-wise and things like that — just being an efficient running back. I think, for me, that’s [what] the biggest next step is, ‘OK, he’s efficient,'” he stated. “The efficient running backs over the [course] of time — like I said, I study the game a lot — they average at least 4.0-4.1 [yards per carry] and above. Guys like Walter Payton. It’s tough, it’s hard. Everybody has had seasons where they average 3.0-something yards per carry due to whatever circumstances. The biggest thing for me is just studying the game, just understanding it and being efficient this year.”
White knows a huge part of his game is as a pass catcher.
“Obviously, I do want to be out in space a lot. I feel like I thrive well out in space,” he stated. “Liam showed clips of that, too. Over time… (Liam) wasn’t there, but like Todd Gurley and guys in the West Coast offense, (Darrell) Henderson — we’ve seen guys catching touchdowns out wide in empty (sets) matched up against a linebacker. Of course that’s huge, as well as just learning, so yeah, I’m excited for that. I’ll be prepared for that and I’m pretty sure it will happen.”
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