Super Bowl champion LB Devin White welcomes a ‘clean start’ with the Eagles after a tough finish in Tampa

New Eagles linebacker Devin White is leaving his long list of accolades in the past as he embarks upon the latest leg of his NFL journey.

White, who agreed to terms on a one-year deal with the Eagles on Monday, was the No. 5 overall pick in the 2019 draft out of LSU by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The 26-year-old linebacker won a Super Bowl ring at the end of the 2020 season. He earned second-team All-Pro honors that season and was selected to the Pro Bowl the following year.

On Tuesday afternoon at his introductory press conference, White admitted that “none of that matters right now” as he bids farewell to the team that drafted him after five seasons of service.

“Right now, I’ve got a clean start,” White said. “Zero tackles. Zero sacks. Zero picks. Zero wins. And now I’m trying to go earn it all again.”

» READ MORE: Marcus Hayes: Eagles’ free-agent additions on defense won’t matter if Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, Nakobe Dean can’t play

White called his professional journey to this point a “roller coaster,” marked by those aforementioned highs and a few recently experienced lows. Last season, White found himself at a particularly low point after he wasn’t able to get a long-term extension done with the Buccaneers in the offseason. The 6-foot, 237-pounder went into the season on the final year of his contract with the mentality that he would have a great season in 2023 and earn his next deal.

However, White suffered a foot injury in Week 3 — coincidentally, against the Eagles — and said he struggled to rebound both mentally and physically as the season progressed. He missed three games late in the season with the injury, giving 25-year-old K.J. Britt the opportunity to assume his role. When the playoffs began, Britt took over as a starter alongside Lavonte David and White saw his snaps diminish.

As a result, White hit the market and landed with the Eagles on a one-year deal reportedly worth up to $7.5 million. Now that he’s “100% healthy,” he said he views the short-term contract as an opportunity to show why he was a top-five pick in the draft and a Super Bowl champion.

“My focus is just so much shifted on the Eagles that anything that happened in the past, it was a lot of great, a little bit bad, but I’m thankful for it all and I’m here now and I’m happy and I’m ready to get to work with this team,” White said. “So none of that really matters to me. I don’t really remember what happened. I’m all tunnel vision on the future and what can happen in the future here.”

» READ MORE: Eagles’ Howie Roseman defends his team-building philosophy at linebacker and has belief in Nakobe Dean

While evaluating his options in free agency, White said he was looking for a team with a winning culture after spending five years on a team that made the playoffs in four of those seasons. Just a year removed from a Super Bowl appearance, the Eagles fit the bill. He’s eager to bring his leadership and “swagger” to a defense that finished the 2023 season ranked No. 30 in scoring and No. 26 in total yards.

To White, the Eagles are the “big dogs around the NFL,” and he wanted to join the group and help deliver a championship.

“I know what it feels like,” he said. “I know what it takes to get there. And I know it’s a lot of work that’s got to be put in, and obviously they know, because they were just at the pinnacle. Obviously, they didn’t get over the hump, but they ain’t too far from it. Obviously, I can say, ‘we.’ We’re not too far from it, because I’m a part of this organization now and I need to just bring what I can bring and feed off my teammates as well and we put this thing together.”

White, a Miami native, will reunite with some familiar faces in the Eagles locker room, including quarterback Jalen Hurts. They graduated high school the same year and attended many of the same football camps, going on to play each other in SEC matchups between LSU and Alabama, where Hurts spent the first three years of his collegiate career.

Since Hurts took over at starter, the Eagles and the Bucs have had a number of meetings, including his first wild-card playoff game in 2021. With each game, White has watched Hurts continue to grow.

“I think just as the years went by, he’s transcended up,” White said. “I think that’s a good thing and that’s what’s making this place even more exciting, because great players want to play with other great players and I think he’s displaying that week in and week out. And just the toughness that he plays with and the level that he plays on. I consider him one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL.”

White will also reconnect with inside linebacker Nakobe Dean, whom White tried to recruit to LSU before Dean ultimately chose to attend Georgia. The two have stayed in touch over the years “out of respect of linebacker ball,” White explained. In a relatively thin inside linebackers room rounded out by Oren Burks, Ben VanSumeren, and Brandon Smith, Dean and White are penciled in as the starters.

During his time in Tampa, White said that he and David used to push each other during the week so they could be at their best on game days. White said that his relationship with Dean could have a similar dynamic.

“We can motivate each other as well, because I think I used to motivate Lavonte being a younger guy, and he wanted to keep up with me,” White said. “Now I’m still a young guy, he’s a young guy, and I think we just want to just beat each other, just as far as everything. Beat me to the ball. Beat me to the building. Work harder than me in the weight room. I’m going to challenge him, and hopefully, he’s going to challenge me back. I think we’ll just make each other better.”

Not only is White healthy again after dealing with the foot injury, but also he said that he’s at a “great mental standpoint” after a challenging season in Tampa. The distractions of a new contract are gone and it’s all “ball, ball, ball” from here on out.

“When I came in the NFL, I had no expectations,” White said. “I just wanted to play ball, have fun, and win games. I think I’m really just so much back into that mindset.”