Kenneth Gainwell had a fantastic season as a Pittsburgh Steeler in 2025. However, he was in a great position to succeed there.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a bit of a different situation for the running back to head into for the 2026 campaign. While Gainwell will have a good role in the offense, it will be a lot different than the one he had last year.
The starting running back for the Buccaneers is Bucky Irving. By virtue of that, that would put Gainwell in a secondary role. Think of this as a running back version of the Michael Wilson regression episode.
Why Kenneth Gainwell could regress in fantasy football
Gainwell caught 73 passes in the 2025 season, equating to about 33% of his fantasy points off the jump. Clearly, if he did it once, he could do it again. However, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are an entirely different team than the Pittsburgh Steelers.
For example, the entire Tampa Bay running back room had 78 receptions last season. The 73 that Gainwell had does not seem likely to repeat this year.
That said, Irving might not be ready to begin the season with a shoulder injury. There could be hope for Gainwell to run his way to a great season. When factoring in the state of the offensive line in Tampa Bay and the fact that the veteran running back will likely split time with Sean Tucker if Irving misses time in the season, odds are he probably will not be a top-16 running back like he was last year.
However, one silver lining is that Gainwell set a career-high in rushing yards in 2025 with the Steelers, showing he is not purely a receiving back. If called upon, he could be a good runner for Tampa Bay. In total, his role should not be much more than the Rachaad White role from last year.
In 2025, White finished as the 32nd-best fantasy football running back, tallying 143 fantasy points, which feels like a realistic result for Gainwell this season.
Add us as a preferred source on Google