Philadelphia Eagles Release One-Time Pro Bowl Linebacker Devin White

Devin White of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before an NFC wild card game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Raymond James Stadium on Jan. 15, 2024, in Tampa, Fla. Julio Aguilar/Getty Images

Linebacker Devin White, a Super Bowl champion and former Pro Bowler, was released on Oct. 8 by the Philadelphia Eagles without ever playing a game for the team. White signed with the Eagles as a free agent in March after five years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but he was never active for Philadelphia’s first four games, ultimately paving the way to his being cut.

White was a healthy scratch with the Eagles after a training camp battle with the team’s third-round pick in 2022, Nakobe Dean. The former Georgia Bulldog won the starting inside linebacker job, where he slots next to veteran Zack Baun in the Eagles’ 3-4 alignment. Just before the regular season, defensive coordinator Vic Fangio announced that Dean would be a starter, relegating White to the bench.

“I just think from the start of training camp to the end, he won the job,” Fangio said of Dean last month.

White couldn’t win second-team duties at inside linebacker or even special teams opportunities, as the Eagles list rookie Jeremiah Trotter Jr. and second-year player Ben VanSumeren as the backup linebackers behind Dean and Baun on their depth chart. While Trotter and VanSumeren have combined to play just three defensive snaps this season as Dean and Baun rarely leave the field, the two young linebackers have combined for 134 snaps on special teams, which is 134 more than White.

The 26-year-old was one of several big names that the Eagles signed in free agency during the offseason, joining the likes of Saquon Barkley, Bryce Huff and C.J. Gardner-Johnson. He signed a one-year deal with the team after a highly productive first five seasons of his NFL career in Tampa, being named a captain in each of the last four. He’s started 75 of 76 career games and has 566 tackles, 23 sacks, six forced fumbles and three interceptions. He and Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher are the only NFL players since 2000 to accumulate at least 500 tackles, 20 sacks and 10 takeaways within their first five seasons.

The No. 5 overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft after being a consensus All-American at LSU, White returned two fumbles for touchdowns as a rookie, the most in the league. In his second season in 2020—and after the Bucs added Tom Brady—White helped lead Tampa Bay to its second Super Bowl championship in franchise history and was also named a second-team All-Pro.

That 2020 season was a historic one for White as he became the lone player since 2012 to rack up at least 100 tackles and nine sacks in a single season. His 140 combined tackles were the fifth-most in the NFL, and he was twice named NFC Defensive Player of the Week. The next year, White made his lone career Pro Bowl, but he would become a target for criticism thereafter.

As the Bucs limped to an 8-9 record in 2022 and a wild card playoff exit, White was called out for a lack of effort by Hall of Famer and Buccaneers legend Warren Sapp. In a midseason game versus the Baltimore Ravens that would end up being Tampa’s third loss in a row and drop its record to 3-5, Sapp posted an infamous video on social media after the loss where he reviewed game tape involving White.

The tape showed White not hustling or making much of an effort, as well as taking the wrong angles on plays, which infuriated Sapp to the point where he said, “How do you show up with your defense on Monday morning with this type of effort? I’ll ask for your C [captain badge] off your chest.”

Then in the 2023 season, and after dealing with a foot injury that sidelined him a couple of games, White was called out by former teammate and current broadcaster Richard Sherman. The longtime cornerback said that White was inactive for a pivotal late-season game against the Green Bay Packers because he wouldn’t accept a rotational role after being an every-down starter. White responded that he would never quit on his team and was inactive due to a mutual decision between him and coach Todd Bowles to continue to rest his injured foot.

“I’ve just been seeing a lot of stuff saying like, that I quit on my team,” White told reporters. “I don’t understand how I could do that when it was a personal—like for me and Coach Bowles—decision to sit down and rest to be able to help my team. And even when I haven’t been playing, I’ve been in the building. I’ve been out there just supporting them. ... I'll never quit on my team.”

White would play the last three games of the 2023 season after those comments, and as it currently stands, those are the last three games of his NFL career. The Bucs did not re-sign him after his contract expired following the season, and while he spent seven months employed by the Eagles, he never logged a single regular-season snap in a Philadelphia uniform.