Running back Warrick Dunn has returned to Tampa after a six-year break.  And he plans to pick up where he left off.

“I would never consider myself a third-down back,” Dunn said, according to the Tampa Tribune.  “It’s not my mentality.  I don’t play the game that way.  I don’t think Coach Jon Gruden brought me here just to play on third down.  He believes in me, and I just have to go out and prove it.”

Gruden agrees.  “I see him as being a front-line guy.  He is going to play a lot.”

In Dunn’s first five years, he shared a lot of the load with Mike Alstott.  In 1997, Dunn had 224 carries, and Alstott had 176.  In 1998, Dunn had 245 and Alstott had 215.  In 1999, Dunn had only 195 to Alstott’s 242, even though Dunn started 15 games.  In 2000, Dunn had 248 carries, and Alstott had only 131.  In 2001, their final season together, Dunn had 158 and Alstott had 165.

With more and more teams employing the two-back approach that the Bucs were using long before it became a league-wide trend, it’s now expected that Dunn and someone else will carry the load.  The possibilities include Earnest Graham, Cadillac Williams, and Michael Bennett.

The guy who has proven the most in the NFL is, without question, Warrick Dunn.

“I’m very happy to have him back,” Gruden said.  “We need him.  We need a guy who can make plays.  That’s the kind of player he is.  He is a heck of a receiver, a heck of a running back.  He can run it, catch it, pick up a blitz.”