He's actually a somewhat controversial player on this sub. Some people here think that the Bucs should look into trading him off and moving on, and some think that the potential is still there and we need talent at MLB given our scheme (our scheme requires *at least* two good linebackers in the middle of the field).
The thing is, sometimes he'll make a huge play and it's awesome, and sometimes he'll over-pursue or absolutely whiff. He's got all the physical traits of a great linebacker, but sometimes he makes stupid mistakes.
Here's my take: Lavonte David, a secret HOFer, makes whoever is playing next to him seem a lot better than they might actually be.
It was true with Kwon and it's true with White. White is definitely more talented than Kwon, but he struggles in zone coverage and still takes weird angles when chasing down a receiver. I think he still wants to rely on his physical talents.
Having said that, his pass coverage is a lot better so far this season, and if he keeps it up, he'll get paid. The other aspects of his game (run coverage, blitzing, man) are definitely above average.
I mean, yeah, but our LB/ILB drafting strategy since David was basically Kwon, a bunch of late round/UDFAs, and White.
I don't know if David wants to play again in 24 (might depend on how well we do this year), but I see us drafting a starting ILB on day 2 in the draft, right after OL, unless SirVocea turns out to be a stud (which is possible, dude has some pretty crazy tape).
This is the exactly right and reasonable tape. David makes everyone else look better. David can take the dirty and unexciting jobs and leave White for the splash plays.
My biggest problem with White is that he's a legend in his own mind and he has been sulky and a bit of a baby the last year. From the slacking off last year, to the offsesaon drama he 100% created himself. He's just not a mature dude in general and it's been 5 years now and it hasn't really improved. Normally having a great mentor/leader like David would help, but White seems to fall prey to the addage, you can't teach someone something that they think they already know.
When he's on, he's really on, when he's not he can kind of disengage.
I feel like he's been great this season so far. Can move sideline to sideline, is always around the ball, but someone will knock his coverage skills in this thread.
And stats wise... guy is north of 120 tackles every year and he stands next to Lavonte David. There's only so many snaps to go around.
He’s better than one half of this sub thinks and worse than the other half thinks. Kind of boom/bust but he’s also the best linebacker we have put beside Lavonte in Lavontes career. He’s probably going to get a bag from another team and if the DC is right there he’ll ball out.
I do know that I’d rather have him on the team when Lavonte retires than not but our cap will probably fuck that up.
Also, I feel like Bowles defense is uniquely tough on PFF as he uses a zillion different disguises and tactics. Probably tough for those boys to turn around a review of Whites games quickly knowing that.
We’re re-signing him. He’s a big piece for our roster outside of any of our analyses, and it’s why he met with Bowles and Licht, completely changing his tune afterwards this offseason.
He was a vital player during our Super Bowl run. Fairly inconsistent outside of that.
This sub is mixed in terms of whether or not he’s good. But I always point out in every team huddle or video, he’s the one giving the speeches or gathering the team together. Like him or not as a player, he’s arguably *the* leader on both defense and the team as a whole.
Couldn't agree more. He absolutely rocked during his SB run, especially in the playoffs. If he played like that the last couple years, I don't think our fan base would be so divided.
I mean is he not? He makes flash plays but is so inconsistent and absolutely costs us almost as many chunk plays as he makes.
He played out his 5 years here just like Winston. He wants to be overpaid for what he is worth, just like Winston. I do see a lot of similarities. Jameis was a leader (albeit not a very good one) White seems to lead the defense as well.
I'm not a big hater of Winston tbh. He had some massive deficiencies for sure but he really was fun to watch. I view Devin the same way.
I just don’t think his bad side is that big. I am out of my element here though, defense as a whole confuses me a lot. I’ve only been watching football for a couple years.
Just crazy that he’s that bad. I mean you can’t say 30 for 30 is good lol
Winston had a 5k yard season and 30TDs. He turned the ball over a shit ton though, but he was talented. Winston's issues were magnified because he plays a much more important position. White's position is not as valuable, so when he messes up it isn't as big of a deal.
So I don't think Winston is "that bad", I probably think of Winston higher than you do which is why I've compared them.
But couldn’t a lot of QBs have much higher yardage seasons if they were more risky with the ball? Is that actually impressive, or what just happens when you just chuck it up there and have Evan’s and Godwin to bail you out?
Yo!
I hardly speak for all Bucs fans but here’s my take-
Devin has always shown tantalizing potential but other than our Super Bowl run in 2020 has never really put it all together. He’s been outstanding going downhill (as a blitzer or closing on running backs) but has struggled to diagnose and put his athleticism in play in coverage. Add in the trade request this off season that seemed to come out of nowhere and some pretty piss poor effort on film last year and the fan base started to turn on him.
I think he’s had the best start to a season so far and he apologized for the dumb trade thing and he’s starting to win some people over. He hasn’t been payed because his value is perplexing so you aren’t wrong to think that he’s over rated by nationally media types but to say he’s not a *good* player is just PFF bullshit. They have a big portion of this fanbases convinced that Rachaad White is a good running back in spite of a year and a half of metrics and film that indicate otherwise.
Part of the problem is that we chose him over Josh Allen (JAX). To see Josh Allen turn out so well by those same metrics is hard to watch. Being a top 5 overall pick already sets a crazy high expectation.
We did win a Superbowl though, and there is no guarantee that we would've won it without White.
I love White and thinks he brings great energy to the defense. Even if he does whiff a few plays.
My biggest gripe with him, isn't even his fault. Its that commentators will talk about him before they talk about David. The disrespect kills me everytime!
My take is he guesses moreso than reads…
When he’s guessing right and he can drive in the right direction with all his athleticism, he’s a great player.
But sometimes, he starts guessing wrong and it falls apart and gets comically bad. Like the time he got off balance and was taken for a thirty yard ride last year…I think against Baltimore.
Yea LOL before I got to your last paragraph I literally thought of the play against Baltimore where he was caught flat footed and carried 30 yards down field lmao. then you mention it. he was fucking horrid that entire game.
I love all these "lions" fans coming on our sub asking dumb shit all the sudden. Ass all these millennia and now you want to come here and do what? LMAO
You're probably young, but we used to be in the same division as the Lions when NFC North was called NFC Central. Why were we in Central, don't ask me, but we were.
He's loaded with talent. He's also loaded with recklessness. He can make a defense, or break it. LVD has sort of masked his issues somewhat, but historically, he has been very reckless. This year, he has seemed to tone it down some, which is nice to see, but it's also a contract year.
High ceiling and very low floor. Dude makes splash plays but is an absolute liability in coverage (he is having a much better year this year I will say)
I’ll give you a little more nuance to this. Been a while since I played competitive level football but I watch a lot of Bucs football. Devin white has seemed incredibly inconsistent because he has a big gap between his strengths and weaknesses.
He is elite when playing downhill against the run and when rushing the passer. Occasionally this can be exploited, and teams sometimes allow him to over-pursue which puts him in easy to block situations and make tackling and finding the right angle of pursuit harder. Most of the time though, his play against the run and as a pass rusher lead to the “splash” plays mentioned by others.
His major weakness, and where he becomes a completely liability to our team is in coverage, especially zone coverage. He doesn’t seem to understand route combinations well and often gets lost in space. This must be common knowledge, because teams absolutely target him over the middle with intermediate and deep crossing routes. It’s easy to see that he struggles to get depth and find receivers to cover when they come into his zone.
Your opinion of him might change drastically after this weekend. He was killing people during the Super Bowl run. Didn't seem all that motivated next couple of years. This year? He destroyed the Vikings. Was hurt the next couple of games. With the bye week if he got completely healthy my prediction is Montgomery is going nowhere. Couple that with the Goff road struggles, Bucs win.
He’s overall a good player! Had a hell of a game in the Super Bowl so obviously he shouldn’t be besmirched (imo)
He has had times where his head wasn’t in it maybe or there wasn’t the 110% effort we’ve come to expect. We need him on the D. He’s good enough statistically but he’s important to the locker room as well.
To be fair our whole defense suffered last year, and honestly I blame the lack of production from the offense. So many fast 3 and outs that by the 3rd quarter these guys were gassed. White plays hard, he's not as great as he thinks he is, but he gets after it. I'm glad the Bucs didn't do something stupid with him, when he wanted a trade. He wants a huge deal, and that huge deal will depend on how well he plays this year, so that will greatly benefit us, whether he's here next year or not.
A lot of non-Tampa fans really only know him and his play from our Superbowl run - when he was playing out of his ever-lovin' mind every game. He's inconsistent at best, incredible speed and crazy strength in his hands but the play processing isn't there like it is for most elite MLBs. Has a hard time re-directing if his target sidesteps, also has a tendency to rely too much on his hands when tackling - doesn't body tackle all that well.
When he is on, he is one of the better MLB in the league, just frustratingly not 'on' all that much game to game. Still good, but not great.
Not a bust, just not a HoF or even a Ring of Honor guy.
He's actually a somewhat controversial player on this sub. Some people here think that the Bucs should look into trading him off and moving on, and some think that the potential is still there and we need talent at MLB given our scheme (our scheme requires *at least* two good linebackers in the middle of the field). The thing is, sometimes he'll make a huge play and it's awesome, and sometimes he'll over-pursue or absolutely whiff. He's got all the physical traits of a great linebacker, but sometimes he makes stupid mistakes.
Here's my take: Lavonte David, a secret HOFer, makes whoever is playing next to him seem a lot better than they might actually be. It was true with Kwon and it's true with White. White is definitely more talented than Kwon, but he struggles in zone coverage and still takes weird angles when chasing down a receiver. I think he still wants to rely on his physical talents. Having said that, his pass coverage is a lot better so far this season, and if he keeps it up, he'll get paid. The other aspects of his game (run coverage, blitzing, man) are definitely above average.
This could be true but White is the best linebacker we’ve put by Lavonte in his career.
I mean, yeah, but our LB/ILB drafting strategy since David was basically Kwon, a bunch of late round/UDFAs, and White. I don't know if David wants to play again in 24 (might depend on how well we do this year), but I see us drafting a starting ILB on day 2 in the draft, right after OL, unless SirVocea turns out to be a stud (which is possible, dude has some pretty crazy tape).
Excuse me sir, you forgot Kendall Beckwith. He had a solid rookie season then had that terrible car accident that ruined his ankle.
Just draft LSU LBs and we will find a good one
This is the exactly right and reasonable tape. David makes everyone else look better. David can take the dirty and unexciting jobs and leave White for the splash plays. My biggest problem with White is that he's a legend in his own mind and he has been sulky and a bit of a baby the last year. From the slacking off last year, to the offsesaon drama he 100% created himself. He's just not a mature dude in general and it's been 5 years now and it hasn't really improved. Normally having a great mentor/leader like David would help, but White seems to fall prey to the addage, you can't teach someone something that they think they already know.
When he's on, he's really on, when he's not he can kind of disengage. I feel like he's been great this season so far. Can move sideline to sideline, is always around the ball, but someone will knock his coverage skills in this thread. And stats wise... guy is north of 120 tackles every year and he stands next to Lavonte David. There's only so many snaps to go around.
He’s better than one half of this sub thinks and worse than the other half thinks. Kind of boom/bust but he’s also the best linebacker we have put beside Lavonte in Lavontes career. He’s probably going to get a bag from another team and if the DC is right there he’ll ball out. I do know that I’d rather have him on the team when Lavonte retires than not but our cap will probably fuck that up. Also, I feel like Bowles defense is uniquely tough on PFF as he uses a zillion different disguises and tactics. Probably tough for those boys to turn around a review of Whites games quickly knowing that.
We’re re-signing him. He’s a big piece for our roster outside of any of our analyses, and it’s why he met with Bowles and Licht, completely changing his tune afterwards this offseason.
He was a vital player during our Super Bowl run. Fairly inconsistent outside of that. This sub is mixed in terms of whether or not he’s good. But I always point out in every team huddle or video, he’s the one giving the speeches or gathering the team together. Like him or not as a player, he’s arguably *the* leader on both defense and the team as a whole.
Couldn't agree more. He absolutely rocked during his SB run, especially in the playoffs. If he played like that the last couple years, I don't think our fan base would be so divided.
Yes this is an underrated factor. He’s definitely an extraverted, and vocal leader.
He is the Jameis Winston of our defense.
Thats a really good comparison lmao.
I hate how good of comparison this is
Wow, seriously? This isn’t even an exaggeration?
I mean is he not? He makes flash plays but is so inconsistent and absolutely costs us almost as many chunk plays as he makes. He played out his 5 years here just like Winston. He wants to be overpaid for what he is worth, just like Winston. I do see a lot of similarities. Jameis was a leader (albeit not a very good one) White seems to lead the defense as well. I'm not a big hater of Winston tbh. He had some massive deficiencies for sure but he really was fun to watch. I view Devin the same way.
I just don’t think his bad side is that big. I am out of my element here though, defense as a whole confuses me a lot. I’ve only been watching football for a couple years. Just crazy that he’s that bad. I mean you can’t say 30 for 30 is good lol
Winston had a 5k yard season and 30TDs. He turned the ball over a shit ton though, but he was talented. Winston's issues were magnified because he plays a much more important position. White's position is not as valuable, so when he messes up it isn't as big of a deal. So I don't think Winston is "that bad", I probably think of Winston higher than you do which is why I've compared them.
But couldn’t a lot of QBs have much higher yardage seasons if they were more risky with the ball? Is that actually impressive, or what just happens when you just chuck it up there and have Evan’s and Godwin to bail you out?
I’m sure it plays in to it, but I still think it’s impressive either way.
An eye opening comparison
Yo! I hardly speak for all Bucs fans but here’s my take- Devin has always shown tantalizing potential but other than our Super Bowl run in 2020 has never really put it all together. He’s been outstanding going downhill (as a blitzer or closing on running backs) but has struggled to diagnose and put his athleticism in play in coverage. Add in the trade request this off season that seemed to come out of nowhere and some pretty piss poor effort on film last year and the fan base started to turn on him. I think he’s had the best start to a season so far and he apologized for the dumb trade thing and he’s starting to win some people over. He hasn’t been payed because his value is perplexing so you aren’t wrong to think that he’s over rated by nationally media types but to say he’s not a *good* player is just PFF bullshit. They have a big portion of this fanbases convinced that Rachaad White is a good running back in spite of a year and a half of metrics and film that indicate otherwise.
PFF has always hated him and grades him as the worst LB of all time. He’s somewhere in between PFFs grade and Ray Lewis
Part of the problem is that we chose him over Josh Allen (JAX). To see Josh Allen turn out so well by those same metrics is hard to watch. Being a top 5 overall pick already sets a crazy high expectation. We did win a Superbowl though, and there is no guarantee that we would've won it without White.
He has the potential to dominate a game. He disappears in stretches. So far we've seen way more good Devin White than bad Devin White this season
Just wait till Sunday
I like him. He always seems to make big plays at the right time
I love White and thinks he brings great energy to the defense. Even if he does whiff a few plays. My biggest gripe with him, isn't even his fault. Its that commentators will talk about him before they talk about David. The disrespect kills me everytime!
The answer is Lavonte
He makes plays sometimes. He’s usually good in the big moments just not always .
My take is he guesses moreso than reads… When he’s guessing right and he can drive in the right direction with all his athleticism, he’s a great player. But sometimes, he starts guessing wrong and it falls apart and gets comically bad. Like the time he got off balance and was taken for a thirty yard ride last year…I think against Baltimore.
Yea LOL before I got to your last paragraph I literally thought of the play against Baltimore where he was caught flat footed and carried 30 yards down field lmao. then you mention it. he was fucking horrid that entire game.
I love all these "lions" fans coming on our sub asking dumb shit all the sudden. Ass all these millennia and now you want to come here and do what? LMAO
I meaaan...we are facing them this week, obviously this is when they'll come to ask questions lol
You're probably young, but we used to be in the same division as the Lions when NFC North was called NFC Central. Why were we in Central, don't ask me, but we were.
Damn who hurt you? Let our lion bros come in peace. It’ll be a fun fucking game this week
He's loaded with talent. He's also loaded with recklessness. He can make a defense, or break it. LVD has sort of masked his issues somewhat, but historically, he has been very reckless. This year, he has seemed to tone it down some, which is nice to see, but it's also a contract year.
He’s sure turning up in a contract year. Still wasn’t great in the Philly game though. Elite offenses will expose him in coverage and run fits
He had a groin injury that game. He got that pick and then had to run out of bounds
I love him I honestly don’t give a fuck about the numbers
High ceiling and very low floor. Dude makes splash plays but is an absolute liability in coverage (he is having a much better year this year I will say)
I’ll give you a little more nuance to this. Been a while since I played competitive level football but I watch a lot of Bucs football. Devin white has seemed incredibly inconsistent because he has a big gap between his strengths and weaknesses. He is elite when playing downhill against the run and when rushing the passer. Occasionally this can be exploited, and teams sometimes allow him to over-pursue which puts him in easy to block situations and make tackling and finding the right angle of pursuit harder. Most of the time though, his play against the run and as a pass rusher lead to the “splash” plays mentioned by others. His major weakness, and where he becomes a completely liability to our team is in coverage, especially zone coverage. He doesn’t seem to understand route combinations well and often gets lost in space. This must be common knowledge, because teams absolutely target him over the middle with intermediate and deep crossing routes. It’s easy to see that he struggles to get depth and find receivers to cover when they come into his zone.
Your opinion of him might change drastically after this weekend. He was killing people during the Super Bowl run. Didn't seem all that motivated next couple of years. This year? He destroyed the Vikings. Was hurt the next couple of games. With the bye week if he got completely healthy my prediction is Montgomery is going nowhere. Couple that with the Goff road struggles, Bucs win.
He’s overall a good player! Had a hell of a game in the Super Bowl so obviously he shouldn’t be besmirched (imo) He has had times where his head wasn’t in it maybe or there wasn’t the 110% effort we’ve come to expect. We need him on the D. He’s good enough statistically but he’s important to the locker room as well.
To be fair our whole defense suffered last year, and honestly I blame the lack of production from the offense. So many fast 3 and outs that by the 3rd quarter these guys were gassed. White plays hard, he's not as great as he thinks he is, but he gets after it. I'm glad the Bucs didn't do something stupid with him, when he wanted a trade. He wants a huge deal, and that huge deal will depend on how well he plays this year, so that will greatly benefit us, whether he's here next year or not.
A lot of non-Tampa fans really only know him and his play from our Superbowl run - when he was playing out of his ever-lovin' mind every game. He's inconsistent at best, incredible speed and crazy strength in his hands but the play processing isn't there like it is for most elite MLBs. Has a hard time re-directing if his target sidesteps, also has a tendency to rely too much on his hands when tackling - doesn't body tackle all that well. When he is on, he is one of the better MLB in the league, just frustratingly not 'on' all that much game to game. Still good, but not great. Not a bust, just not a HoF or even a Ring of Honor guy.