Devin White is making a huge mistake with the Buccaneers
It isn't that much of a surprise that the Devin White story has taken a bit of a bad turn against him. When the day began with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers announcing that White was on the healthy inactive list, it always seemed like this story was going to take a bad turn after the […]
It isn't that much of a surprise that the Devin White story has taken a bit of a bad turn against him.
When the day began with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers announcing that White was on the healthy inactive list, it always seemed like this story was going to take a bad turn after the game.
It looks like that has finally happened when Todd Bowles said it was White's choice to be inactive today after the writing was on the wall regarding K.J. Britt starting alongside Lavonte David.
The Buccaneers have generally done well at keeping most of their big issues in-house. There have been a few slip-ups, but most of these awkward situations have been handled well and internally. That has actually been one of the brighter spots of Todd Bowles' tenure in Tampa.
The fact that Bowles, a head coaching fighting for his job, benched White, a player in a contract year that came into this season eyeing $20 million per year after 2023, on a team that is fighting for the playoffs, is pretty substantial, especially when that player happens to be a former fifth-overall pick and captain on the defense.
The situation gets even messier when the coach announces that it was the captain's choice to not even dress with his team.
Here is Bowles on the situation with a very Bowles response:
For what it is worth, White is not injured. He practiced this week. Also, it usually doesn't come down to a player to make a decision like this, especially not when that player is apparently bought in to the team and its future.
Getting benched is tough, but it isn't impossible to bounce back from it. Quitting on your team because you got benched is a very different situation.
White is just burning whatever bridges remained with the Bucs and any chance of staying here and is also killing his own stock on the free agent market amongst teams that might've taken a chance on a guy that seemed like he would work hard.
This story just keeps getting messier and messier. Hopefully the two sides can come to an amicable split, but it sure doesn't seem very likely at this moment.
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Still rolling ahead, somehow.
