Buccaneers vs. Seahawks Performance Preview

Brianna Dix: Rachaad White

With Bucky Irving being ruled out for Sunday’s matchup with the Seahawks, I think Rachaad White is going to have a breakout game in Week Five. When the Bucs faced the Seahawks in Munich, Germany in 2022, White posted his first 100-yard rushing game and helped the team establish the ground attack. That game, in which he memorably stiff-armed standout safety Quandre Diggs and earned the Angry Run Scepter from Good Morning Football, is one of White’s most notable performances as a Buc. Both clubs are different in 2025 and Seattle boasts the NFL’s sixth-best run defense; however, there are many ways that White can make an impact at Lumen Field.

He has become a go-to target for Baker Mayfield on checkdowns and provides a security blanket if pressure collapses the pocket. White has churned out physical five and six-yard runs that have helped create physicality, wearing out defenses. Where he made his impact back in 2022 was on the perimeter off screens. White is a patient runner and he can stack cuts to maneuver around congestion. He sets up blockers and runs with good balance for between the tackles-duties. With outstanding body control and adjust capability as a pass-catcher, I believe White will have a key performance against the Seahawks for the second time.

Scott Smith: Chris Godwin Jr.

Bri and I are not purposely picking players from the same side of the line of scrimmage each week; it’s just working out that way. For us both to choose offensive players against one of the NFL’s best defenses may not seem like a great strategy, but I trust in Baker Mayfield and company to find a way to keep chugging along.

Chris Godwin Jr. return to game action last Sunday for the first time in 11 months, which is how long it took him to recover from a serious injury that included, among other things, a dislocated ankle, plus the surgery that followed. He was not put on a pitch count, playing 81% of the Bucs’ offensive snaps. And he was immediately back in Mayfield’s crosshairs, getting 10 targets to tie Emeka Egbuka for the team lead. Those 10 targets producing just three catches and 26 yards was concerning – Godwin has always played a highly efficient role in the Bucs’ passing game – but I think it’s fair to attribute some of that to the proverbial “knocking off of rust.” In other words, we shouldn’t be surprised that a guy playing for the first time in 11 months and coming back from a serious injury would have a less productive outing than usual.

My prediction here is that the rust has sufficiently been shaken and that Mayfield and Godwin will find that connection again that they had last year, which had Godwin as the NFL’s leading pass-catcher at the time he got hurt. Godwin is too proud and too hard of a worker not to push himself to higher production. It doesn’t hurt that the Seahawks will be without one of their top cornerbacks, Devon Witherspoon. Godwin is going to go off and I’m going to even this competition up. Book it