After his offseason request for a trade fell through due to a contract dispute, Bucs linebacker Devin White is holding out. The 2019 first-round pick has not been attending the voluntary offseason workouts at the AdventHealth Training Center and likely won’t attend the voluntary OTAs either, as he’s not happy about playing on his fifth-year option, which will pay him $11.706 million in 2023.
It remains to be seen if White will hold out of the mandatory mini-camp in June or training camp, which is also mandatory, starting in late July.
White wants to be paid an average of $18-$20 million per year, according to a recent ESPN report from Jenna Laine, with a contract totaling at least $100 million. Bucs co-defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach Larry Foote, a former NFL linebacker himself, can see both sides of the White holdout situation, but recently said White has “champagne problems” in a press conference last week.
With four years of starting in Todd Bowles’ defense under his belt, White has a firm grasp of the Bucs playbook. So White could get away with missing voluntary workouts and OTAs and not have it be critically detrimental to his play this season.
Devin White Won’t Get To Know His New Teammates
But there is an area where Devin White’s holdout will be noticeable, and if it continues into training camp it will hurt the team and that’s the area of team-building, communication and team chemistry. A big component of working out together in the offseason at team headquarters and attending the voluntary OTAs is getting to know new teammates, furthering the bond between old teammates and developing the ever-important camaraderie.
As a team captain and the leader of the defense, White wears the green dot on his helmet, which means he receives the calls from head coach and defensive coordinator Todd Bowles and must communicate that to the rest of his teammates. Great team defense is often borne out of great communication. Busted assignments that lead to big gains or touchdowns are often borne out of miscommunication.
“It’s always communication,” Foote said. “In this league, you win and lose the fourth quarter on mental errors. It’s so important. It’s not talked about a lot but communicating is so important out there, especially in hurry-up, fourth quarter when you can’t really get a call in the headset. You guys have to do it. You have to go back to the gameplan and what we want to do, and guys have to communicate.
“That’s what I spoke about earlier, off the field – these guys have to enjoy being around each other, especially the linebackers. We need everybody to talk and communicate. We’re kind of in the middle, well, we are in the middle, so we have to communicate with the big guys and then on the back end, but we need everybody on the same page. It’s nobody’s fault. I tell them guys all the time, it’s everybody’s fault. If you’re not playing the same thing, you’re going to lose.”
The Bucs will have plenty of new faces on defense this year as Will Gholston and Akiem Hicks haven’t been re-signed, and safeties Mike Edwards, Logan Ryan and Keanu Neal are gone in the secondary, as is cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting. That’s six players – all of whom were part-time or regular starters last year.
The Bucs will have two new starters along the defensive line, a new nickel defensive back and a new safety this year. Newcomers like safety Ryan Neal and nose tackle Greg Gaines will see plenty of playing time, in addition to the team’s rookie draft class.
White won’t meet any of them or develop any chemistry with them until he shows up for practice. Whether that’s for the OTAs, mandatory mini-camp or training camp is ultimately up to White.
The Bucs Don’t Know When Devin White Will Show Up
The Bucs don’t know when that will be. Devin White hasn’t told the Bucs his plans for the offseason and how much he will participate – if at all.
“I haven’t really talked to him about that,” Bucs linebackers coach Larry Foote said. “We were just talking more about getting in shape, stuff we need to work on, and offseason tape and breakdown, and stuff we’re looking for him to do. But we have not talked about when he’s going to show up. Right now, he’s fighting for a contract – champagne problems.”
The Bucs won’t reward White with a lucrative contract extension until he plays more consistent football. Foote said that White needs to improve in multiple areas as he enters his fifth year in Tampa Bay.
“Everything – just get better – pre-snap stuff, zone coverage, even blitzing better, attacking the run,” Foote said. “In the offseason, you want to look at any plays, explosive plays, that you gave up and we want to minimize that. Just little things, new ideas that we’re putting in – getting him up to scheme on the new things we’re implementing. And every year you have to be better than the next year. This league demands it. So far, during his short career, he’s been evolving.”
Due to modern technology, Foote can keep White in the loop this offseason with coaching tips and new defenses they will install via e-mail and Internet downloads during his holdout.
“Absolutely,” Foote said. “If that’s the decision he makes, I will be doing all that I can do to make sure he stays in tune with what we’re doing.”
Devin White’s Absence Will Affect Bucs’ Team Chemistry
If Devin White were an outside linebacker whose job is to set the edge in the run game, and either rush the passer or drop in coverage against the pass it would be different. But he’s an inside linebacker and team captain, and all of the Bucs’ communication on defense goes through him.
While veteran reserve K.J. Britt and rookies SirVocea Dennis, a fifth-round draft pick, and Jeremy Banks, an undrafted free agent, will benefit with increased reps in practice without White there, the Bucs defense could suffer from White’s offseason absence in the long run.
“Chemistry – chemistry is a big thing in the secondary, [and] you have to be able to play off of one another,” Bucs cornerbacks coach Kevin Ross said. “The great secondaries they know where people are going to be, they know exactly what’s happening in that defense and they play off of one another. That’s the main thing, we’ve got to get some chemistry back there, we’ve got to get things [better].
“Hopefully nobody gets injured, and we get set back that way because that’s what’s been happening the last couple of years. We’ve had to change secondary people, in and out. They don’t know each other, they don’t know how each other’s going to react during the game.”
And as long as White stays away from the team during his holdout he won’t know his new teammates and team chemistry could suffer.
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