Eagles Devin White Won't Mope, Vows To Stay Ready Despite Losing Job To Nakobe Dean

The Eagles signed Devin White to a one-year free-agent deal inthe offseason and, after a summer of mostly starting reps, he lost the starting MIKE job to Nakobe Dean.

Eagles linebacker Devin White meets with reporters during the team's mandatory minicamp in the first week of June. / By Ed Kracz

PHILADELPHIA – Devin White wasn’t running and hiding when the Eagles locker room opened before practice on Thursday. It would have been easy to do that after he lost what looked like his all summer long – the starting MIKE linebacker job.

Instead, White showed up at his locker and answered reporters’ questions until all the questions had been asked.

“It was hard, but at the end of the day, it’s football,” he said. “Those guys make those decisions, and you have to live with them, and be prepared when your number is called. Just go out there and handle your business.”

That’s White’s plan for now. It won’t be to request a release or trade.

“I’m locked in with this team,” he said. “I came here to do a job. I know everything is in front of me, so I have to do what I have to do ... If I stay true to myself and the team, it’s going to come.

Devin White still taking the first rep in tackling drills. #Eagles. pic.twitter.com/HOYA5qv4Ay

— John McMullen (@JFMcMullen) September 12, 2024

“I just keep the main focus as getting better and being able to help when I am called. I kind of look at it that way. Being here, going through all the phases, putting in all the work, I still see the green grass on the other side. I just have to stay true to myself.”

The Eagles don’t plan on letting White go, either. At least not right away, because in the NFL things can change quickly.

They signed him to a one-year deal worth very little – just $3.5 million guaranteed. He had spent the first five years of his career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who picked him fifth overall in 2019. White started 75 of 76 games in that time, but last year did not end well, when he worried about his contract, got hurt, came back, then was replaced in the starting lineup.

Eagles LB Nakobe Dean / John McMullen/SI Eagles

“He’s been a great teammate and done everything that’s been required of him and I really have a lot of respect for him, we’re going to need him,” said head coach Nick Sirianni. “We’re going to need him this year. It’s a long football season.

"Obviously, Nakobe (Dean) and Zack (Baun) are our linebackers, but Devin will have to contribute this year if we want to go where we want to go, and that goes for all the guys who are one snap away from going in.”

White suffered an ankle injury that forced him to stay behind in Philadelphia as his teammates traveled to Sau Paolo, Brazil, to face the Green Bay Packers in Week 1. He said he isn’t sure of his availability in Week 2 when the Eagles host the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football.

He knows, eventually, he will be ready for whatever role he is given.

For now, he is supporting Dean, who said he was told at the end of August he had won the starting job.

“He told me, ‘Don’t look, keep on going and continue to get better week in and week out,’” said Dean. “He’s been great. He’s continued to be a help in anything, and any opportunity he gets, he’ll do it.”

The only whiff of animosity White may have had was when he said he thinks the Eagles had their minds made up well before informing Dean the job was his.

“The way the snap count went, the things I did on the field, preseason-wise, but at the end of the day, it’s not my call,” he said. “I can just do what’s asked of me, and just stay ready – whether I go out there the last two minutes of the game or the first play of the game, I just gotta be ready and give this team all I have.

“That’s what I came here to do, rewrite my story for my career. However that plays out, I don’t control that. I just leave it in God’s hands, and I stay ready. I don’t cry, I don’t mope around. I come to work and be a pro about it.”

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