There hasn’t been a lot written to date about Las Vegas Raiders players who are eligible for free agency, and for good reason. Most free agents want to get out of town ASAP when things go south as badly as they have for the Raiders, and usually the teams they’re leaving don’t want them back all that much, either.
Which makes linebacker Devin White’s upcoming free agency all the more interesting, actually. White was signed at the recommendation of GM John Spytek, who had White when they were both with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Spytek saw White as an intriguing reclamation project, and what’s happened since represents one of the most intriguing mixes of good and bad you’ll ever see in a single player.
Start with the good, courtesy of Tristian Kuhn of Silver and Black Pride. White broke the Raiders’ single-season record for tackles on Sunday against the Houston Texans with 11, albeit in yet another Raiders loss, 23-21. That brought his season total to 160, which made him just the 12th player since 2019 to record 160+ tackles in a single season. To summarize, ten of those tackles have produced a loss, and White also has four quarterback hits, an interception, two pass break-ups and a forced fumble.
Sounds like a guy you’d want to bring back, right? Well, maybe not. According to Kuhn, the linebacker has struggled immensely at times, with a near NFL-leading 24 missed tackles (13 percent rate) while allowing the most receptions (71) on the most targets (88) of any linebacker this season. White also has the highest reception rate allowed at 81 percent, and he’s allowed the 3rd most yardage in the league with 533.
That’s quite a mixed bag, but there’s more. Watch the games closely, and you’ll see a linebacker who has missed assignments in the run game, left windows opened in the passing game, and displayed a mediocre effort level, to put it kindly. He’s made most of his tackles well behind the line of scrimmage—5.7 yards, to be specific—so the automatic question is simple: just whose fault is all this?
That question has been asked a lot about the Raiders at all levels this year, and it’s tough to know for sure. White only cost Las Vegas $1.125 million this year, and he has athletic ability and solid instincts against the run when he’s engaged. He’ll be an interesting free agent to watch, and the Raiders decision to sign him or move on could be a referendum of sorts about Spytek’s instincts, too, not to mention his decision to bring White to Las Vegas.