Linebacker Devin White made a splash when he was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2019.
His personality, his affinity for horses, and his fast and violent play style made him an instant fan-favorite among Buccaneers loyalists, and that devotion only grew in his first two years in the league.
Following the second Super Bowl victory in Tampa Bay history, however, something changed.
Maybe he was one of the guys coach Todd Bowles talked about still living off the championship run following a disappointing loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2022.
Whatever it was, more and more people — fans, media, and former players alike — started noticing and discussing the flaws in White's game. Sometimes it was technique, sometimes it was effort. Regardless, he became the target of many who expected the linebacker's ascent to continue, not plateau or even decline.
Eventually, he left the Bucs as more of a role player than a difference maker and has since signed a deal with the Philadelphia Eagles that Ari Meirov of 33rd Team recently revealed some details on.
Before the NFL Draft in 2019, White was quite the media star, never one to shy away from saying something that would make the attention he was getting stick for a while longer.
One quote in particular has stuck out, and stuck to him, for the first five years of his career.
“Draft me, because when I hit free agency in five years, the price will go up," White said according to Roy Lang of Shreveport Times. "I’ll be looking for $100 million then.”
Five years later his deal is about $96 million shy of that mark, and about four years shorter than anyone expected.
It's an unfortunate turn of events for a player who was on the fast track to becoming one of the Buccaneers' best in franchise history. The same player was once told by running back Christian McCaffrey that he was the best linebacker in the league.
To go from there to a one-year prove-it deal with the Eagles is unfortunate, to say the least. But the story - for both the player and the team that drafted him - is far from over.
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