Devin White Believes Pro Bowl Recruiting Not Needed
February 6th, 2022
Not selling Bucs.
What better time to try to bring in another stud player than when you are at the Pro Bowl.
“Hey, Russell Wilson, we just won a Super Bowl and just lost a quarterback. Bet Ciara would like Clearwater Beach better than anything Seattle has. Just ask Gisele. And remember Russ, you won’t get clobbered by taxes in Florida.”
Or maybe a defensive tackle might want to call Tampa Bay home. Or a tight end? There were all sorts of players at the Las Vegas Ballpark yesterday the Bucs could use.
Joe thought for sure the timid soul known as Devin White would be the first one to sweet-talk Russell Wilson the joys of Tampa Bay and a dominant offensive line. White seems like a natural salesman.
So who was White recruiting at the Pro Bowl this week?
“Nobody,” White flatly told Joe.
Now wait a minute. All these players to lure to Tampa Bay, including a quarterback when the Bucs just lost theirs? A team that still is defending Super Bowl champs and likely has the firepower to make another run with a solid quarterback?
White told Joe recruiting is unnecessary. The Bucs, White informed Joe, will recruit themselves.
“Nah, good players want to play with good players. Don’t have to recruit.”
White has a helluva point. In some circles this is called “chasing a ring.” The good quarterbacks out there know the Bucs need a quarterback, and know the Bucs are still stocked to make another run. The good quarterbacks know the Bucs still have Mike Evans and perhaps a lot more to throw to.
It’s not a secret. The Bucs are good.
My, how Tom Brady changed things around here.
February 6th, 2022 at 12:07 am
That’s bc he knows he has no PULL, Joe. Comon’ ….
February 6th, 2022 at 12:08 am
I like the optimism, but need to see what happens with a few key starters in FA, the team will look different next year even beyond Brady
February 6th, 2022 at 12:14 am
Are you really out there encouraging our players to tamper? That’s what this would be, isn’t it?
February 6th, 2022 at 12:21 am
We are the best. D. White. 2 pro bowls so far. More than david.
February 6th, 2022 at 12:25 am
He shouldn’t even be at the pro bowl let alone recruit at it.
February 6th, 2022 at 12:29 am
Vea. White. Winfield. We the best.
The best is coming.
February 6th, 2022 at 12:47 am
Seem to recall Sapp talking to Keyshawn at the Pro Bowl about coming to the Bucs.
Joe asked a couple of players about recruiting. There was a Bucs media relations rep right there. Not once did he tell Joe not to go there.
February 6th, 2022 at 1:01 am
Brady is gone…what is this crap?
Brady recruited himself.
Hey come play for Gabbert. LOL.
We are still in stage 1 of grief for sure.
Joe, wake up bud. This team won’t win more than 6 games next year.
February 6th, 2022 at 1:14 am
LOL!!! 🙂
February 6th, 2022 at 2:16 am
@Joe The fact that it happened before doesn’t really mean it’s kosher. The rule EXPLICITLY mentions the Pro Bowl as a time for teams to be cautious and warns against this:
“Club executives directly or indirectly instruct or encourage conversations
or meetings involving their own players and players under contract to other
organizations that can reasonably be interpreted as designed to express the
club’s interest in acquiring the services of such other player(s)”
February 6th, 2022 at 2:21 am
Devin White needs to look in the mirror. He let his team down. He played like a scrub. Many believed he was an overhyped self-absorbed freelancer coming out of college.
He’s only reinforced that with his putrid performance against the Rams.
Overrated.
February 6th, 2022 at 2:26 am
Sparky:
Nothing in that excerpt prohibits a player from selling another player to come to his team. It only forbids a team using the player as a liaison or conduit.
February 6th, 2022 at 2:41 am
The ‘good’ Quarterbacks are all under contract and too expensive for the Bucs to acquire/afford.
Wilson would be the dream scenario…..
Would cost 1st round pick+++ AND have to pay him $37M this year – $40M next.
Its just not possible after already going ‘all in’ financially in 2021.
February 6th, 2022 at 2:50 am
Pickgrin, the price they’re willing to pay depends on what the goal is.
It is to still compete for a SB in the original (as if they still had Tom Brady) time frame of 1-2 years, keeping as many of the existing stars as possible? Then they would be willing to mortgage some of the future for a star. A gamble with long term $ problems.
On the other hand, if we are talking about sensible long-term maintenance, with low(er) expectations, then they go cheaper (mediocre veteran QB bridge) and go youth. This involves accepting ugly in the short term.
February 6th, 2022 at 3:48 am
21 other starting positions. Save The Licht House. Make The Bucs Defense Great Again.
February 6th, 2022 at 4:06 am
Jvato24 & Pickgrin are both spot on … Bucs will have to make a number of significant changes on offense & defense in these coming months because of our salary CAP situation & large number of open starter/key rotational player positions. We’ll be a different team IOW, playing what will probably be a significantly harder schedule. It’s impossible to predict how that will all flesh out at this point.
We took some gambles in 2020 & 2021 that we’ll be paying for these next 2 years (at least). IMO it was well worth it, but the bill’s coming due; you can’t ‘restructure’ what you don’t own (example: we still owe Tom Brady $32 mil, of which we’re paying $9 mil in 2022 & the rest in 2023). Sucks for us this year & next, but again, it was well worth it.
Devin White’s correct in that ‘good players want to play with good players’. What he forgot to mention is that they expect to be paid handsomely for it (seems like some of the first words out of his mouth when he became a Buc was how he’d be the $100 mil man?).
JBFers can go round-and-round about who to sign as a QB & who to sign for other positions, but at the end of the day JL has fill the positions AND balance the books. Easy for any of us to say ‘Trade for Russell Wilson’ but commenters say that in isolation of having to view that decision in terms of ‘The BIG Picture’. Overpay for 1 position and you just screwed yourself in several others. JL doesn’t have that luxury.
Building (and rebuilding) a championship team takes time & patience. There’s no ‘Knight on a white horse’ coming to save us. Give Trask a fair shot at the position; sign a decent backup; focus on building a solid team to surround our QB (offense AND defense), and then hope for the best in 2022.
February 6th, 2022 at 4:22 am
I love people declaring that this team will be 6 and 10 (when that final record is impossible), when it is impossible to know what the opening day roster will look like, The Bucs are not the Jagoffs, They have talent, the 9ees almost made the bowl with “That %@$#ing Guy” so chill out on the gloom and doom predictions (I know that is difficult if you are a ptsd lost decade survive like myself).
February 6th, 2022 at 4:57 am
Agree with D.R. and Mike C.
AGAIN…we do not need to find the next Tom Brady…that’s a fool’s errand.
We need to find the next Brad Johnson..a QB who is a professional, can make the throws, and lead the offense. That may be Trask with experience. And I’ll start a chorus of boos but Gabbert might fill that role.
Meanwhile we had Pittman and Alstott…I do not know how we afford Playoff Lennie but if not…Vaughn showed promise..Bernard is good enough if he has any tread left on the tires…and there’s the enigmatic ROJO who is clearly capable of 1,000 yards.
Our OL is clearly superior to our 2002 team!! We’ve won both SB’s with a rookie right Tackle…but it’s hard for me to even type the name Kenyatta Walker in the same sentence as Tristan Wirfs…Marpet is significantly better than Kerry Jenkins…LT is a wash as is RG and Center. Jeff Christy was a good center…but I like Jenkins better because of his ‘tude. I take ME13 over MEshawn Johnson every day of the week while I truly respect Keenan McCardell I’d take CG14 over him and Brate has better hands than Dilger.
Bottom line…this offense will not be the same without Brady..duh..but it could be SB worthy. Emphasis on “could”.
It’s the D that is going to have to step up. They are going to have to elevate from good to great..something they did that stretch run to the SB. We still have plenty of pieces in place including some young guys. We do need to replace some older dudes. I liked the Mock draft that had us going DL in the first round and CB in the second. Our safeties are studs and could anchor the back end next year.
The worst mock I saw was us taking Malik Willis who had a strong Senior Bowl to offset his no competition college experience at Liberty U. But he’s projected as high as the #2 spot to Detroit and is expected to be a first rounder. He’s not a pocket passer and so why would BA be interested in him? And why would we trade and draft capital to move up to get him.
Draft for the D. This year will be the return of the Bucs D pulling the wagon.
February 6th, 2022 at 5:04 am
Morning, cup of joe and reading about the document shredding. Good ol captain grifter is one terrible, terrible person. Now which side is the evil one? Hmmmm.
February 6th, 2022 at 7:01 am
People are just dreaming if they think we can get Wilson to Tampa. It’s not happening. Welcome to reality, the Blaine, and Trask era is about to begin. One’s a vet who Arains seems to love, and the other 2nd round, 2nd year QB. That’s who we’re rolling with, get real. The money, and draft picks we save going this path will help us compete more than selling the farm for one guy. If Gabbert can’t do it, and Trask shows no hope, than the Bucs will go QB hunting. Not now, not this year.
February 6th, 2022 at 7:27 am
The downside for our players to recruit other QBs to Tampa is that they have to come back and face Kyle Trask……
“Hey Kyle, love having you but I’m trying to bring in another QB to keep you from starting”
It’s fine after Licht has approached a player…..but not at the Pro Bowl.
February 6th, 2022 at 8:00 am
Russell Wilson and Ciera just opened their first retail store in Seattle and it appears Roger’s is working his way into Tenn. Interesting combination Roger’s & Vrabel. I can’t see Vrabel taking Roger’s whiny crap.
February 6th, 2022 at 8:16 am
“The Bucs are still stocked to make another run.”
So why did Brady leave?
February 6th, 2022 at 8:51 am
@DR,
While all your points are valid, I would offer this. If Trask showed this past year he has that kind of potential, why was he not given a little mop up duty over Gabbert to show what he can do in a live situation with real starters across from him? So, no matter what BA does, that shows me they don’t believe in Trask; at least not at this point.
Second, the Aint’s kicked the can down the road for many years. I am assuming Jason Licht can get a couple of more years stretching his budget.
I do agree most of the available great QBs would be hard to fit into our cap. However, Rogers and Jimmy G are in the last year of their contracts. Giving one of them an new backloaded contract would be a step in the right direction of cap management. And as has been said in here, I’d give up a 2nd rd pick for Jimmy G versus multiple 1st rd picks for the likes of Wilson or Watson.
Last, if the Bucs bring in a Tribisky or anyone of that calibre, that says everything about Trask.
February 6th, 2022 at 9:48 am
Any QB interested in winning a SB and is a student of the game and the players like Brady will know that the Bucs have the nucleus to win a SB. What they need to do is commit early and secure that nucleus from leaving in FA and work on getting a few missing pieces like Brady with Gronk and AB and then develop a offense they can run.
February 6th, 2022 at 12:39 pm
He doesn’t even belong there him and shaq not recruiting sucks
February 6th, 2022 at 12:53 pm
@ mike C – 6-11 – we play 17 games now…geez. Casuals.
February 6th, 2022 at 6:30 pm
Settle down Sparky. If you don’t think that goes on between players all the time for decades then you need to open your eyes a little. It’s no big deal. Don’t be a Karen.
The issue is when coaches and management start contacting players
February 6th, 2022 at 8:07 pm
You did not have to be a rocket scientist to see what Licht and Arians had put into place at our franchise. TB, Gronk and the rest were all professional NFL football players after all.
TB got us over the top and has departed now. Our “brain trust” is striving to keep us relevant for many years to come. Enough, already!
Go Bucs!
February 6th, 2022 at 10:38 pm
Hey David, I’ve got your Karen right here (grabs testicles).
First, I’m well aware players have done it before. I also don’t think there should be anything wrong with it. But its VERY clearly spelled out in the rulebook. I don’t think they took the time to write a whole paragraph specifically about tampering at the Pro Bowl because they don’t care about it.
And Joe, there was zero legit evidence for Degflategate and that got a HoFer suspended for 4 games. All we need is the APPEARANCE of tampering by some player saying “Yeah, I gave Russ the hard sell to come over here”, and someone else overhearing BA drunk in a bar saying “We’d really like to get Russ this year” The media would run with it. People start turning over rocks, and maybe turn nothing into something. So is it perfectly legal if a player, with NO guidance from the team, recruits players? Yes. But the Commissioner isn’t a court of law, all he needs is a preponderance of the evidence to decide it was tampering. I don’t know why you’re even arguing with me about it, its so obviously a bad idea.