Buccaneers' Antone Smith: Ability to handle normal workload unproven

Smith's ability to handle a normal running back workload, which he figures to be in line for in Thursday's game against the Falcons, is unproven, given that he's never had more than four carries in an NFL game, Greg Auman of the Tampa Bay Times reports.

Analysis:

While he played 22 snaps in Sunday's loss to the Raiders and carried four times overall, that modest amount of touches actually matched a career-high for Smith. It's certainly not common to find a veteran running back of 66 NFL games who's never exceeded four rushing attempts in a game, but that's precisely the case with Smith, whose career receiving yards (282) nearly equal what he's tallied on the ground (319). As a result of his history of an abbreviated workload, the 31-year-old could be used more in a Darren Sproles-type role, receiving single-digit carries but being used heavily in the screen game and on short dump-off passes that could replace a traditional running attack at times. Smith certainly has the speed to eat up large chunks of yards in space, having run a 4.33 40-yard dash coming out of college and a 4.25 back in his high school days.