There's a story at The Athletic about Tampa Bay running back Ronald Jones. He says he's added about 6 pounds of muscle (it's always muscle, same with all of us when we gain weight), but more importantly he's been working hard on his pass catching. With Tom Brady in town, that should be a bigger part of the offense this year.
Not that Brady is going to be crafting the offense, but Bruce Arians is smart enough that he's going to put together an approach that his new quarterback is comfortable with. That probably means more short passes (hence our preference for Chris Godwin, who's more likely to run those kind of routes, over Mike Evans), and more involvement of the running backs in the passing game. Brady's old team did a lot more of that last year than his new one.
In 2019, New England running backs averaged 71 receiving yards per game -- 27 percent of the team's passing total. That was behind only the Chargers among the league's 32 teams. Tampa Bay was down at 45 yards per game, and just 14 percent of the team's passing total (half as much). Only 10 teams' running backs accounted for a lower percentage.
| TEAM RB RECEIVING, 2019 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Team | RB | YPG | %Yds |
| LA Chargers | 4648 | 1357 | 84.8 | 29% |
| New England | 4153 | 1134 | 70.9 | 27% |
| Carolina | 4134 | 1068 | 66.8 | 26% |
| Minnesota | 3729 | 855 | 53.4 | 23% |
| Green Bay | 4017 | 853 | 53.3 | 21% |
| Washington | 3205 | 663 | 41.4 | 21% |
| Oakland | 4110 | 825 | 51.6 | 20% |
| Pittsburgh | 3214 | 640 | 40.0 | 20% |
| Philadelphia | 4063 | 806 | 50.4 | 20% |
| Cleveland | 3847 | 726 | 45.4 | 19% |
| Denver | 3401 | 641 | 40.1 | 19% |
| San Francisco | 4029 | 753 | 47.1 | 19% |
| New Orleans | 4431 | 824 | 51.5 | 19% |
| Chicago | 3573 | 663 | 41.4 | 19% |
| Arizona | 3797 | 659 | 41.2 | 17% |
| Jacksonville | 4023 | 689 | 43.1 | 17% |
| NY Jets | 3443 | 584 | 36.5 | 17% |
| Indianapolis | 3314 | 504 | 31.5 | 15% |
| Miami | 4117 | 581 | 36.3 | 14% |
| Kansas City | 4690 | 648 | 40.5 | 14% |
| NY Giants | 4070 | 559 | 34.9 | 14% |
| Tampa Bay | 5127 | 723 | 45.2 | 14% |
| Cincinnati | 3994 | 534 | 33.4 | 13% |
| Buffalo | 3476 | 460 | 28.8 | 13% |
| Seattle | 4110 | 504 | 31.5 | 12% |
| Baltimore | 3350 | 409 | 25.6 | 12% |
| Atlanta | 5049 | 608 | 38.0 | 12% |
| Detroit | 4187 | 501 | 31.3 | 12% |
| Houston | 4083 | 461 | 28.8 | 11% |
| Dallas | 4902 | 527 | 32.9 | 11% |
| Tennessee | 3956 | 424 | 26.5 | 11% |
| LA Rams | 4669 | 260 | 16.3 | 6% |
Jones should open as Tampa Bay's starting running back, but it remains to be seen if he gets those passing down chances. The Bucs drafted KeShawn Vaughn in the third round, and he caught 41 passes at Vanderbilt the last two years. Tampa Bay also has Dare Ogunbowale around to play on third downs, and they could still sign a veteran like Devonta Freeman.
Unless or until that happens, though, Jones looks like the favorite to start, and has a chance to make an impact as a receiver. Will be tough for Vaughn to pick up the offense right away, and hard to see the team counting on a rookie in pass protection with the 43-year-old Brady in the lineup. There hasn't been a lot of interest in Jones in early drafts I've seen or been in. There's risk given his two underwhelming seasons, but he was better last year (over 1,000 total yards and 6 TDs). Seems to be undervalued.
--Andy Richardson