Eagles release LB Devin White ahead of Week 6 game vs. Browns

White signed a one-year, $4 million deal with the Eagles in the offseason to compete for a starting role, but he was inactive for all games this season.

Devin White, shown during a preseason game, never played a regular-season snap for the Eagles.Read moreYong Kim / Staff Photographer

by Olivia Reiner

Published Oct. 8, 2024, 5:17 p.m. ET

The Eagles released Devin White on Tuesday, bringing an end to the inside linebacker’s nonexistent on-field career with the team.

White, 26, signed a one-year, $4 million deal with the Eagles in the offseason to compete for a starting role. Throughout training camp, White took the bulk of the first-team reps alongside Zack Baun in the middle of the field. Nakobe Dean ultimately won the starting middle linebacker job, leaving White in a reserve role.

However, he was inactive for each of the Eagles’ four games to start the season. White, the No. 5 overall pick in the 2019 draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers out of LSU, did not make the trip to São Paulo, Brazil, for the season opener against the Green Bay Packers while he dealt with an ankle injury. He was a healthy scratch for the next two games and was ruled out against the Buccaneers because of what the team called a “personal” matter.

White did not play on special teams, which further contributed to his inactivity on game days. The Eagles’ depth linebackers, Jeremiah Trotter Jr., Ben VanSumeren, and Oren Burks, have special-teams responsibilities and have been active in all four games.

Even though White was in a reserve role, Nick Sirianni said last month that the linebacker had been a “great teammate and done everything that has been required of him.” The fourth-year head coach emphasized that the Eagles were going to need him at some point during a “long football season” in which injuries typically occur.

“Everything’s not going to always be in your favor,” White said on Sept. 18. “But it’s about how you respond, how you handle yourself, and that’s the only thing I can control. I can’t put myself in the game, but I can control my attitude and my effort at practice. Just my swagger in the building still.”

Evidently, the team changed course on its plans for White. The Eagles reached an agreement with the linebacker so they could facilitate the move now. The team granted White’s release before the Nov. 5 trade deadline, so he is not subject to waivers and can sign with any team. White, in turn, agreed to terms with the Eagles that could give them potential financial savings.

White was one of the defensive free agents Howie Roseman added in the offseason with the intention of upgrading a unit that finished No. 30 in points against and No. 26 in yards against in 2023. That group of defensive free-agent additions has had varied individual success in a short window, from Bryce Huff’s lack of production as a pass rusher to Baun’s emergence as a starting inside linebacker after mostly playing on the edge with the New Orleans Saints last season.

Because White wasn’t active on game days, he could never truly back up Dean or Baun if they were to go down in the middle of the action. Trotter, the Eagles’ fifth-round pick out of Clemson, appeared to be the primary backup, at least in Week 4 against the Buccaneers. He took his first three defensive snaps of the season in relief of Baun late in the fourth quarter when the game was already out of the Eagles’ grasp and most of the starters had exited.

Burks, whom the Eagles also signed to a one-year deal in the offseason, is also a backup option at inside linebacker. He has mostly served in a special-teams capacity throughout his seven-year career. Still, the 29-year-old Burks has still taken a total of 963 defensive snaps, collecting one interception, two sacks, two pass breakups, two forced fumbles, and 176 tackles (six for losses).