TAMPA, Fla. — One day, he might be great. Eventually, he could be filthy rich.
But neither scenario is guaranteed, and both conceivably could be slipping away for Devin White.
Tampa Bay’s Pro Bowl linebacker reportedly has requested a trade, presumably because he is unhappy the team has not wowed him with a multiyear contract offer. If true, this would be a bold move for a player whose performance hasn’t always matched his hype.
Essentially, White is saying he deserves more than the $11.7 million he is due to make in 2023. And maybe he does. For all the griping about his occasional lapses on the field, White is still one of the top inside linebackers in the game.
But it’s interesting that the Bucs have been unwilling, or unable, to lock White up going into the final year of his rookie deal. It’s not like the Bucs have been against negotiating ahead of that fifth-year option for first-round draft picks in the past.
Tampa Bay gave receiver Mike Evans a big extension going into his fifth season. Defensive lineman Vita Vea, too. On the other hand, they picked up the fifth-year options for quarterback Jameis Winston, tight end O.J. Howard and cornerback Vernon Hargreaves, then either allowed them to walk away or waived them without a new deal.
And it’s not hard to distinguish the trend. Evans and Vea were clearly seen as major pieces of the team’s core. Winston, Howard and Hargreaves were either disappointments, or at the least, question marks after four seasons.
So can we assume the Bucs view White as less than a sure bet?
His stock is assuredly higher than Winston or Howard at this point in his career, but the question is whether White’s opinion of himself is out of whack with reality.
The truth is this:
White can be a major talent. He has incredible speed and has put up numbers that are comparable with some of the best young linebackers in the NFL. But he also has mental lapses and can be virtually invisible on the field for long stretches.
White is only seeing one half of that equation. He wants the kind of money Roquan Smith got in Baltimore this year (five years, $100 million with $45 million guaranteed) after boycotting a month of training camp in Chicago and later forcing a trade to the Ravens.
The Bucs have salary cap issues but they could actually make it easier on themselves by signing White to an extension today and lowering his salary cap hit for 2023 by spreading the bill across upcoming seasons. The fact that they have not done that says they’re either not convinced White is an integral part of their future or that his contract expectations are wildly unrealistic.
Pro Football Focus does not have the same access or expertise as NFL front offices, but those folks do spend a lot of quality time analyzing game tapes. And they graded White 74th among 81 linebackers in 2022. A year earlier, they had him 79th of 86.
Now, maybe that should not be viewed as gospel but it at least suggests there are divergent opinions about White’s value when it comes to stopping the run and missing tackles.
A player with White’s skills will always find a home in the NFL, but it takes something extra to get the kind of contract he is seeking. It’s not just speed, it’s the willingness to study video. It’s not just size and strength, it’s the commitment to staying in peak condition. It’s not just exuberance, it’s the ability to listen and learn.
Only the Bucs can say for certain whether White checks all of those boxes, but the lack of a contract extension might be a pretty good clue.
So what might White gain from a trade demand?
It seemed to work out well for Smith, who got his new deal three months after Chicago traded him to Baltimore. And maybe that’s the game plan White is following.
As for the Bucs, they already have made some hard decisions on the defensive side of the ball from their ground-breaking 2019 draft class that included White at the top. They let Sean Murphy-Bunting and Mike Edwards walk away in free agency, but signed Jamel Dean to a four-year, $52 million extension.
They seem to be threading the needle between rebuilding while still staying competitive in a weak division. And dealing White now would end the illusion of staying in contention for 2023. Especially when you consider the Smith trade only netted second- and fifth-round picks for Chicago.
It makes more sense for the Bucs to keep White in uniform and see if his performance matches the image he has of himself. If it does, it might ultimately cost the Bucs more money than they’re offering now, but they can still sign him to an extension during the season.
And if White continues to exasperate?
The NFL trade deadline is late October.
