Cornerback Tre'Davious White has been there since the beginning, helping transform the Buffalo Bills from drought-stricken franchise to perennial contenders, but what does the future hold for grizzled fan favorite?
White was the first first-round draft pick of Sean McDermott's tenure as Bills' head coach. After being selected at No. 27 overall in 2017, the LSU product promptly slid into a starting role and wound up finishing second in the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year race for a team that ended a 17-year postseason absence.
Following four consecutive impactful seasons, including two All-Pro nods (2019, 2020), White's career has been untracked by two major injuries over the past three years. After finally returning to form from a 2021 ACL tear, White ruptured his Achilles in the Week 4 home win over the Mimi Dolphins last fall.
"We love Tre," said Bills' general manager Brandon Beane at his end-of-season press conference. "Our focus here is just getting him back healthy and getting him on the field. We haven't gone down the road of who the starting corners are next year or what we can afford."
Due more than $16 million in 2024, and coming off a debilitating injury, White has been rumored as a potential salary cap casualty that would reportedly clear approximately $6 million in cap space for Buffalo. That idea, however, may have been made moot thanks to Friday's news out of the NFL offices.
As it turns out, the NFL salary cap has increased by about $12 million more than expected, allowing each club to spend up to $255.4 million on players' compensation in the new year. That amount represents more than a $30 million bump from the 2023 spending limit ($224.8 million).
With the Bills now needing to find $12 million less than initially thought to become salary cap compliant, the $6 million in "savings" that would come from cutting White is no longer as impactful.
Considering the Bills will absorb $10 million in dead money, which cannot be spent toward the roster, as a result of dumping White, the proposed move offers little return on investment. Paying White $10 million to not be on the roster as a means of clearing $6 million in cap space is not an efficient allocation of funds.
Over 82 career starts for the Bills, the 29-year-old White has accounted for 18 interceptions, 68 passes defensed, five forced fumbles, five fumble recoveries and 3.0 sacks.
White may never be able to return to the All-Pro level he once lived at, but he still brings value to the locker room and meeting room. Cutting an original building block for the sake of a modest gain in cap space is bad business, something the Bills haven't been guilty of under Beane's regime.
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