TAMPA, Fla. — Entering the season, much was made of new quarterback Tom Brady’s fondness for throwing passes to his running backs, with Ronald Jones working on his surehandedness over the summer and the Bucs adding veterans LeSean McCoy and Leonard Fournette just before the season started.
And as much success as the Bucs have had in their 7-4 start, as much as Brady has already thrown for more touchdowns (25) than in all of last season with New England, he has struggled to find the same connection when throwing to his running backs. He’s on course to throw for less than half as many yards to backs as he did last year, and Bucs running backs have accounted for half of the team’s dropped passes on just 20 percent of Brady’s targets.
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“We drop too many, to start with,” coach Bruce Arians said Wednesday. “Normally our screen game has been really good. We just busted the protection on the screen the other night and missed the call we had made on who was blocking the defensive end. They’ve always been a good part of our offense, and obviously, when they have wide receiver skills, it’s different because you can use them a whole lot different.”
The drops were costly in Monday’s 27-24 loss to the Rams, as Brady went 1-for-5 on throws to his backs. The Bucs settled for a field goal in the third quarter after an interception set them up at the Rams’ 22 when Fournette dropped a third-and-8 pass. In the fourth quarter, Fournette dropped another pass — his third of the night, by some counts — to set up a third-and-10 and then a punt in a one-score game.
The Bucs have tried to find different answers for their important “nickel” running back role, which comes often on third downs and obvious passing situations, or when they turn to a hurry-up offense. McCoy had that role early in the year, but they converted just three of 10 third downs when throwing to him, so Arians shifted that role to Fournette, who caught 76 passes last year with the Jaguars. Tampa Bay has relied almost exclusively on Jones and Fournette in the last four games, with McCoy active but playing just three total snaps in the last five games.
Jones and Fournette already have five drops each by Fox Sports’ unofficial count, and the only backs in the entire league with more are the Saints’ Alvin Kamara and the Eagles’ Miles Sanders, with six each. Add in two drops for McCoy, and the Bucs running backs have 12 drops on their 86 targets this year, compared to 12 drops total for all the receivers and tight ends in their 335 targets.
When the Bucs have caught the ball, they’ve done very little with it this season. Jones has a 98-yard touchdown run, but he hasn’t flashed any that big-play ability in the passing game, totaling 124 yards on Bucs backs struggling in pass-catching role for Tom Brady26 catches. He actually averages more yards per carry (4.9) than he does per catch (4.8), and the latter is the lowest total for any NFL player with 25 or more catches since 2013, when the Texans’ Ben Tate averaged 4.1.
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A year ago, with the same offensive coaches in place and Jameis Winston at quarterback, Jones had success as a pass-catching back, getting 309 yards on 31 catches to average 9.97 yards per catch, fourth-best among NFL backs with at least 30 catches. This year, he’s dead last out of 119 NFL players with 25 catches, and Fournette isn’t much better, fourth-lowest at 6.4 yards per catch.
Brady is used to more passes and much more yardage throwing to his backs. Last year in New England, his backs piled up 1,1129 receiving yards and six touchdowns, but this year he’s on pace for less than half that yardage, with a single touchdown throw to his backs. On third downs, when a back’s pass-catching skills are most important, the Bucs are just 6-for-21 in conversions when throwing to their backs.
Asked after Monday night’s loss if the drops by backs were hurting the offense, Arians said “I don’t think so whatsoever.” He said that “a couple of them were not really good throws either” and that the screen to Jones was “a little quick,” that he considered “maybe one of those a drop” and placed the blame on Brady more than the receiving end.
The Bucs’ opponent Sunday, the Chiefs, have given up the seventh-most passing yards to opposing running backs this season, so there’s an opportunity to use the backs as part of an offensive plan that will need to move the ball well to keep up with the league’s No. 1 offense and quarterback Patrick Mahomes. That’s true for the final month of the season as well, as three of the Bucs’ final four games are against the Lions and Falcons, who rank first and third in the NFL in touchdown catches allowed from opposing backs.
Tampa Bay’s run game as a whole has been inconsistent, with Jones and Fournette combining for five 100-yard games individually. Only the Vikings and Titans have more this season, but the Bucs still rank just 28th in rushing yards per game, on pace to average fewer than 100 rushing yards a game for the fourth year in a row.
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Lost in the running back shuffle all season has been rookie Ke’Shawn Vaughn, the team’s third-round pick out of Vanderbilt. He caught the winning touchdown pass in a Week 4 win against the Chargers but hasn’t played on offense in the last five games and was inactive entirely in the last three.
“Just trying to get him active,” Arians said of Vaughn’s chances at helping in the final stretch of the season. “We can’t have everybody dress, as much as I’d love to. He’s doing a great job. He’s going to be a heck of a player. It’s just getting him on the field, on the roster on Sunday. Normally we’ve been dressing three backs. Each week, those last three or four spots are really hard to fill, and he’s been getting knocked out of it.”
The Bucs have gone with McCoy ahead of Vaughn for that third active back spot because they trust him better to handle a larger role if one of the top two backs went down with injury, but McCoy hasn’t gotten any looks, even when the other backs are dropping multiple passes like Monday.
“He can do everything,” Arians said of dressing McCoy instead. “He’s a veteran player who’s been out there, especially on Monday night and Sunday night. It’s no knock on Ke’Shawn. He’s going to be one heck of a football player for us.”
(Photo of Leonard Fournette dropping a pass in the second half Monday night against the Rams: Mark LoMoglio / Associated Press)