MLB Best Bets – Free (Wednesday 5/15)
Josh Gross
Bucky Irving had a strong freshman year at Minnesota before transferring to Oregon where he continued to ascend in 2022. He was third in the Pac-12, producing 1,058 yards on the ground and over 1,300 scrimmage yards. Irving has continued his strong play to start 2023 and has posted over 500 scrimmage yards for the Ducks.
Irving is a touch undersized, standing 5-foot-10 and 194 pounds, but plays with a surprising ferocity. He is not going to run over a defender, but he leans into contact with a good pad level which allows him to win the leverage battle often. He marries this with above-average contact balance, allowing him to pinball his way through defenses and gain the tough interior yards. In addition, he can set up defenders to prevent solid contact and sheds most upper-body tackle attempts, making him hard to bring down.
His strongest trait is his ability to accelerate to top speed quickly once he finds a hole, but this also comes with a flaw, as he can’t slow down at the same which results in him running into his blockers. At times, he also shows some impatience in overrunning his blocks. He can counterattack this with quick feet and impressive jump-cutting ability to find open space where he can hurt you with his top-end speed. When it comes to open-field elusiveness, he leaves a lot to be desired but does well using the defender’s leverage against them to force missed tackles.
As a pass-catcher, Irving is above average. He has decent hands but has some concentration drops on tape. His transition from receiver to runner is impressive and allows him to create a lot of yards after the catch. He has not been asked to venture much outside of the traditional screens, dump-offs or wheel routes, but I think he could develop in this area.
- Quick Feet
- Acceleration
- Contact Balance
- Hands
- Elusiveness
- Power
- Impatient/overrunning blocks
- Coaches Pac-12 All-Conference honorable mention (2022)
- Pro Football Focus All-Pac-12 first team (2022)
- Phil Steele All-Pac-12 third team (2022)
- 40-yard dash: 4.55s
- 10-yard split: 1.54s
- Vertical: 29.5″
- Broad Jump: 9’7″
- Three-cone: TBD
- Shuttle: TBD
- Bench: TBD
- All-purpose committee back
- Gap/Interior Zone
Irving will likely start his career as a change-of-speed back within a committee. This will likely limit his ceiling, but he will be able to sustain value weekly in the right system.
In college fantasy, he is a must-roster as part of the dynamic Oregon offense. He splits touches, so he is somewhat limited but still an effective asset.
