Running Back · Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Bucky Irving

No. 7 · 3rd season

Todd Bowles said summer or fall. Bucky Irving was on the practice field Thursday.

Timelines are guidelines. Bucky Irving, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back who has been working his way back from an injury, showed up to practice Thursday — ahead of the schedule his own head coach had set out loud.

Coach Todd Bowles had told people to expect Irving back sometime in the summer or fall. That is a reasonable window. Irving apparently did not find it reasonable enough.

Showing up early to a practice field does not guarantee anything. It does not mean a game-day return is imminent or that the hard part is behind him. What it means is that the body is cooperating faster than the plan accounted for — and that Irving is not waiting around to find out what summer looks like.

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