Eliminated from the postseason, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a new goal over the final two games of the 2015 season: Get running back Doug Martin the rushing title.
Martin enters Week 16 with 1,305 rushing yards, or just nine yards fewer than Adrian Peterson, the current leader.
“I think it’s important to our offensive line to help Doug Martin be the leading rusher in the league,” head coach Lovie Smith said, via ESPN. “It’s important. It’s always about the team goals at the end, but there’s some individual things going on to be able to remember this season by.”
The Buccaneers are 6-8 and out of the NFC postseason race. While an 8-8 record is still attainable (Tampa Bay hasn’t been .500 or better since 2010), getting Martin the rushing title would represent a fine finish to a revival season. The Bucs have already won three times as many games as 2014.
Tampa Bay will play the Chicago Bears and Carolina Panthers to end 2015. Who knows how many yards it will take to boost Martin into first place, but the winner of the rushing title has finished with at least 1,474 yards during every year since 1991.
“I think it would be great, especially for the offensive line,” Buccaneers center Joe Hawley said. “We don’t have a lot of stats. That’s one thing we can hang our hat on. That’s real difficult to do. I know a lot of people [who play] for a long time would love to have that.”
Martin has rushed for at least 80 yards in each of the last five games. He’s gone over 100 yards four times this season, with a high of 235 back in November.
The Buccaneers might get hammered for thinking about individual goals during the season. Let’s hope not. Winning is always most important, but individual players don’t get these kind of opportunities very often. In fact, no Buccaneers running back has ever won the rushing title. Credit Tampa Bay for embracing the chance to provide one of its best players with a career-changing achievement.
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