Bucaneers offensive coordinator Jeff Tedford said he believes in alternating running backs and the Bucs have no shortage of ballcarriers. In addition to Doug Martin, Mike James and Bobby Rainey also rushed for more than 500 yards last season. And Tampa Bay used a third round draft pick on West Virginia running back Charles Sims.
“I think you have to alternate,'' Tedford said Tuesday. "Even when we had two, 1,000-yard rushers (at California), J.J. Arrington was a 2,000-yard rusher and and we had a couple times guys had a thousand yards apiece. But I don’t believe that one back can carry the load. It’s just too physical. I think you probably need to have two to three guys to bring different things to the table. But I think you at least need to have two to be able to spell them here and there and keep them healthy and that type of thing.
"That's the goal to try and create some depth right there where there's not a dropoff when one guy comes in and another guy goes out. There's no dropoff. We just keep going.''
Anytime a new OC is in town it throws some uncertainty into the mix. It's not clear just how many carries Martin will see when compared to the other backs. We currently project him to see 339 touches, but there's some downside from there if Tedford gives one of the other backs gets more than a 'change-of-pace' type of a role.
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