Safety Jordan Whitehead left the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2021 to play for the New York Jets for two years. After being in New York for two years, he found himself back in Tampa Bay through free agency.
In his mind, though, he's where he's supposed to be.
"It feels good, you know. It feels like it's home," Whitehead said Thursday. "They drafted me, so I always have love being here. It's exciting — I've just been upstairs for the last hour or two and it feels like I never left."
He did, though, and Tampa Bay has been trying to fill his place since. 2022 saw the Bucs try to bring in Logan Ryan as a second safety, and that didn't work out due to injuries. Then, the team brought in a promising free agent in Ryan Neal in 2023, but that didn't work out either when Neil disappointed with his play.
Now, Whitehead is back. He's back in a system he's used to playing in, too, but that doesn't mean he's the same player — in fact, he learned quite a bit about himself and his skillset in New York, and he's ready to bring all that to Tampa Bay.
"My game elevated from being in the pass defense," Whitehead said of his time with the Jets. "Learning to read coverages, learning to read offenses, learning to read the quarterback in the middle of the field. There was just certain stuff that I didn't get to do as much here because I was in the box so much."
He'll get to use that skillset under Todd Bowles once again, but the relationship will be a bit different. When Whitehead left the Bucs in 2021, Bruce Arians was his head coach — now, it's Bowles, who has stepped up from running the defense to running the entire team.
It's something Whitehead is excited about. Not only did he have a lot of great things to say about Bowles, but he also declared him as one of the NFL's best defensive minds.
"I don't know what player wouldn't want to play for him, especially as a defensive player," Whitehead said. "He's going to bring the best out of your game. That's just the person he is."
Now, he'll get to play under Bowles and his defense once again. And according to him, it was something he was thinking about from the moment he hit free agency after the 2023 season.
"The reality was, I always knew I wanted to play back in that defense," Whitehead said. "Bowles has one of the best schemes, if not the best scheme, in the league."
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