Sample sizes are a funny thing. The smaller they are the more pronounced the conclusions we can make from them. But boy can small sample sizes make fools of us all. Myself included. Take my evaluations this year of Bucs linebacker Devin White for instance. After a very good training camp and a solid first two games of the season I penned this doozy of a piece.

Bucs ILB Devin White and Seahawks QB Geno Smith – Photo by: USA Today

Fast forward six weeks and I was … uh … out on White. Following his strong opening act to the season White’s performance had fallen off quite a bit. He posted some of the worst Pro Football Focus grades of his career in games against Green Bay and Kansas City. Those games were followed by average-to-poor showings against Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Carolina. Then that fateful Baltimore game happened. And it wasn’t just White’s on-field performance that was coming under fire. Comments made following the Falcons and Ravens games brought White’s leadership into question as well.

Something interesting has happened since Week 8 with White. The flashiness of his play and his post-game interactions have been replaced with a quiet, demure, confidence. White’s performance on the field has been consistent and controlled. This has allowed him to rack up 39 combined tackles with only an 11.4% missed tackle rate.

This missed tackle rate is over a full point lower than his career rate and almost two points behind his rate to that point in the season. His PFF grades have improved and stabilized, with his three highest game grades coming in the past six weeks.

White’s improvements on the field can be attributed to more discipline in maintaining his gap assignments, more control in his pursuit to the ball, and a general trust in his teammates to do their jobs. This allows White to execute his own assignments, rather than freelancing and leaving large swaths of a play uncovered for the opposing offense to take advantage of.

And White has been able to accomplish this without sacrificing the one thing everyone agrees he is amazing at. Since Week 9 White has pass rushed 58 times. Over that time he has generated a quarterback pressure 11 times. That 19% pressure rate is extremely effective. And those pressures have included splash plays including five QB hurries, three QB hits, and three sacks.

Bucs ILB White’s Coverage Has Improved

Bucs ILB Devin White – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

But in addition to maintaining his quality pass-rushing abilities, White is showing subtle improvements in other parts of his game. Since Week 9 he is being targeted slightly less (10.5% of coverage snaps vs 11.1% for the first eight games). And opposing offenses are finding less success on those targets. Through Week 8 White had allowed 221 yards on 30 targets in coverage. That works out to a 7.4 yards per target.

Over the past six games that production has fallen to 114 yards over 18 targets (6.3 average). Over that time period the Bucs run defense has given up 28.4 yards per game as well. Overall, the defense’s play is benefiting from a more controlled and disciplined version of White.

This is a version of White that could be worthy of a contract extension after his fifth-year team option in 2023 has expired. No one has ever doubted White’s talent. And if he can harness it in a useful manner as he has done over the past six weeks for an extended period of time there is hope that he can truly ascend to upper echelons of linebackers in the NFL. Or maybe this is once again just too small of a sample size to make any sweeping judgements from. Only time will tell.