Bucs general manager Jason Licht says he regrets drafting Devin White

Rick Stroud, Tampa Bay Times on Aug 13, 2025

Published in Football

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TAMPA, Fla. — Devin White is trying to earn a starting job with the Raiders, his third team since the former No. 5 overall pick left the Bucs following the 2023 season.

In Las Vegas, White is reunited with John Spytek, a key member of Tampa Bay’s front office for nine seasons and now Raiders general manager. Spytek, a former Bucs assistant GM, was instrumental in the recruiting of quarterback Tom Brady, a former Michigan teammate, to Tampa Bay. Brady is now a minority owner of the Raiders.

But Spytek’s former boss, Bucs general manager Jason Licht, said recently he regrets selecting White in the first round of the 2019 draft.

In hindsight, Licht told The Athletic, he believed he was fooled when he chose the linebacker.

“Knowing what I know now, he would’ve been off my board,” Licht said. “It was too much about him.”

White played five seasons for the Bucs and was a big factor in their run to the Super Bowl 55 championship.

The Bucs picked up his fifth-year option worth $11.7 million in 2023, but by then White was seeking a four-year, $100 million contract similar to what the Ravens had paid linebacker Roquan Smith.

White’s final season with the Bucs also was marred by a foot injury and his refusal to play in a game at Green Bay after being asked to platoon at inside linebacker with K.J. Britt. White was inactive for the game.

The Bucs opted not to re-sign White as a free agent, and he had mostly unproductive stints with the Eagles and Texans last season before signing with the Raiders in March as an unrestricted free agent.

Recently, White acknowledged the contract dispute, his ankle injury and the death of his father left him “in a bad spot mentally” for his final season in Tampa Bay.

“I didn’t really care about football at the time, whenever that was going on,” White told reporters in Las Vegas late last month. “My injury was going on. Just a lot was going through my head. I was out of it.”

White was on a team bus to the airport to fly to Germany for a game against the Seahawks in November 2022 when he got a call that his father, Carlos Thomas, had died unexpectedly at age 45. White honored his memory by having one of the best games of his career, with nine tackles, two sacks, a forced fumble and three quarterback hits.

But White never really recaptured the aggressive style of play that made him a top-five pick out of LSU.

While Licht says now he should not have drafted White, it’s hard to fathom the Bucs winning a Super Bowl without him.

The Bucs played all three playoff games leading up to Super Bowl 55 on the road. After a wild-card win at Washington, their defense took down the Saints’ Drew Brees, Packers’ Aaron Rodgers and Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes in consecutive weeks.

White was spectacular in the division-round game at New Orleans, with 11 tackles, one interception and a fumble recovery that likely changed the entire game. He was just as good in the Super Bowl win, notching 12 tackles, two tackles for loss and a game-sealing interception of Patrick Mahomes.

White celebrated the championship by riding his horse around Raymond James Stadium while holding the Lombardi Trophy aloft following the boat parade in downtown Tampa.

He told reporters in Las Vegas that he had been selfish during his time in Tampa Bay, but only in that he shouldn’t have tried to play with the foot injury in 2023.

“I’ve been a guy my whole entire football career, I’ve just never been hurt,” White said. “So when you get hurt and you want to play through those injuries to help your team, you also can hurt yourself by doing it. I think that’s what I did. I think it was selfish to put myself out there and selfish to my team to put myself out there and not just being 100 (percent), because at the end of the day they need the Devin White that can just be lights-out for four quarters on the field, and I didn’t do that.

”I hate that it happened. I think about it all the time. I don’t dwell on it. I always try to see if I’m ever put in those situations again, what would I do different? And me, I would help the team, and me helping the team is being healthy. So if something happens, I want to get my body right so I can be all-out when I’m on that field for my team."

After being released by the Eagles, White played in only seven games for the Texans last season, compiling 17 tackles. But he said he feels at home in Las Vegas. Raiders cornerback Decamerion Richardson is a first cousin.

“I don’t want to feel sorry for myself,” White told reporters in Las Vegas. “I just want to go out there, and I want to just get back to having fun. I just pray a lot. I get into my Word a lot. That was my time to be close to God.

“For whatever reason, it had to happen like that it did. I’m thankful and I’m vulnerable, and I reach out to people. I talk to a lot of people. I’ve been to counseling and everything. I’m just happy to be back here. I’m back smiling, and I know I’ve got a great purpose in life.”