Rachaad White: 'I Want To Make People Fear Me'

Rachaad White replaced Leonard Fournette as the bellcow back in 2023 and didn’t enjoy a lot of success right out the gate in his first full season as a starter. Some early season struggles with the new zone blocking scheme was a source of frustration, in addition to a revamped offensive line in front of him.

Yet there was one game in particular that turned everything around for him to finish off a great season. That showed that he could be a threat to opponents week-in and week-out and teams would never view him as an afterthought again.

“I just remember the Falcons game,” White said of Tampa Bay’s 16-13 loss in Week 7. “I had like almost 100 scrimmage yards that game, but I started getting the space. I just kind of started realizing and you know, obviously, I took it as a disrespect for that. Obviously in a game plan, guys weren’t keying for me.

“Obviously, you want to be a guy in this league, you want to be a guy that’s scouted for, respected. So I just kind of saw that and people just leave me out. So I was like, I’ve got to make the most and make people fear me – make people respect me. I say, when they come into a game is not just 13 (Mike Evans), 14 (Chris Godwin) there’s more, we need to worry about, too. So I’ll say that was a big game, the Falcons game. And after that, like it was kind of just rolling nonstop from there.”

Rachaad White Started Seeing The Game Better And Having Fun

After that first meeting against Atlanta, Rachaad White went on to reach over 100 scrimmage yards in six of his next eight games, also missing one game in that span by just two yards. Let’s remember that this was only his second year in the NFL and his first as the full-time starter. White figured out how to excel in his role, and is setting himself up for a big 2024 season.

“I think the biggest thing is just play ball, just go,” Rachaad White said regarding how he got better late in the 2023 season. “Not thinking so much and just relying on what you’ve done your whole life. Everybody wants to be perfect. Me, early in the season, I wanted to make the right read, try to make the perfect play and things like that.

“Certain things that Coach [Todd] Bowles was saying early in the season were obviously correct. I wanted to be a big-splash, big-play guy with my ability and things like that. I let all of that go and just trusted in what the coaches had in store for us. I started playing faster and started having fun. I had a conversation with my mom, and she was huge on that. I started having fun, just going out there and playing ball, playing for my team.”

Rachaad White can often been seen smiling and having a relaxed, chilled attitude. It seems that the better mood that he’s in, the better he plays.

It’s in everyone’s best interest in Tampa Bay to keep him happy this year.

And it’s in White’s best interest to play well enough again that he strikes fear into the Bucs’ opponents.