Bucs inside linebacker Devin White wants his money or he wants out of Tampa Bay.

That’s the story that ESPN’s Jenna Laine reported yesterday. Pewter Report confirmed with the team that White has requested a trade over a contract dispute, and that the Bucs aren’t interested in trading him.

White, Tampa Bay’s first-round pick in 2019 and the fifth overall pick that year, had his fifth-year option picked up by the team and he’s slated to earn $11.706 million in 2023. But he doesn’t want to wait another year for a contract extension, despite the fact he’s coming off a very inconsistent season.

Keep this in mind. White didn’t threaten to hold out of OTAs and training camp over his contract demands – he’s gone on record saying he wants to be the highest-paid linebacker in the league, which would be over $20 million per season, with a contract that is over $100 million in total value.

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

White, a team captain, said he would leave the Bucs to go get that money elsewhere. In doing so, White crossed a line and may have painted himself into a corner in the process.

A kid telling his dad that he’s not doing chores unless he gets a raise in his allowance is the equivalent to a player holding out of training camp for more money. There will be some consequences for taking that stance. The kid will be punished – perhaps being grounded.

The player will be fined for missing mandatory mini-camp and training camp practices. That’s his punishment, per the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

But a kid telling his dad that he’s not doing chores unless he gets an allowance raise and then threatening to run away from home over it is something entirely different. It’s crossing a line. And that’s the equivalent of what White is doing here in asking for a trade.

Derrick Brooks Held Out For More Money, But Never Requested A Trade

I remember back in 2001 when Bucs legendary linebacker and Hall of Famer Derrick Brooks held out of training camp for a new contract. That stalemate ended in August after 11 days.

Bucs legend Derrick Brooks – Photo by: USA Today

But Brooks never asked to be traded, nor did he consider it.

Big difference.

Brooks was a Buccaneer through and through – in addition to being a much more consistent and superior linebacker than White is.

A first-round pick in 1995, Brooks had helped turn the team around and finally make the playoffs in 1997 after a 13-year postseason drought. Two years later, the Bucs were a touchdown away from beating the Rams and making it to the Super Bowl.

A year after his contract extension, Brooks would deliver an NFL Defensive Player of the Year season and help Tampa Bay win Super Bowl XXXVII.

Brooks wanted more money – but from the Buccaneers. Not just any team.

By requesting a trade, White, a team captain who helped the franchise win its second Super Bowl in 2020, is telling the Bucs – and the rest of the NFL – he doesn’t care who he gets the money from. He just wants the money.

Devin White’s tweet

Cut Brooks open and he still bleeds red and pewter to this day. Maybe garnet and gold from his Seminoles roots, too.

White took to Twitter on March 27, where he commented on a jersey mock-up of him in an Eagles uniform by a Philadelphia fan, saying his favorite color was green, which is interesting. One would think if White’s favorite colors weren’t red and pewter, they would at least be purple and gold from his LSU days.

But after all, green is the color of money.

Devin White’s Popularity Is Sinking Over His Trade Request

Devin White skipping over the offseason and training camp holdout and going right to the triple dog dare – a trade request – is not going to endear him to the Bucs organization, nor is it going to endear him to Bucs fans, either.

In a Pewter Report Twitter poll we posted Tuesday night with over 1,700 respondents, 64% say the Bucs should trade White, which speaks to his lack of popularity right now. Just 30% say the team should make White play out his fifth-year option and not trade him. Only 5% – perhaps White’s “Get Live 45!” hardcore loyalists – suggest that the Bucs give in to his contract demands and make him the highest-paid linebacker.

As I wrote about on Pewter Report on Tuesday night, White doesn’t have much trade value. He thinks he’s worth more than other teams think he’s worth. White believes there might a line of suitors waiting to make him the highest-paid linebacker in the league when he’s not even among the Top 5 – perhaps the Top 10 – inside linebackers in the NFL.

There is not a line of teams waiting to deal for him.

Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson, who has asked for a trade from the Ravens over exorbitant contract demands himself, is finding out the hard way, too. Nobody wants to pay Jackson the fully guaranteed salary that he demands.

And Jackson is a much better – and way more popular – player than White is.

Bucs Head Coach Todd Bowles Will Determine What Happens Next

White’s timing for a trade request now is rather dumb – unless he requested a trade earlier in the offseason and we’re just finding out about it now. We’re a month removed from free agency and a lot more teams had a lot more cap room to perhaps entertain the idea for a possible trade back in March.

I can see general manager Jason Licht going either way – trading White or keeping him and making him play his fifth-year option – depending on what his head coach, Todd Bowles, wants to do. The Bucs just re-signed 33-year old linebacker Lavonte David and don’t have another starting-caliber linebacker on the roster to potentially start in White’s place. So they’d have to draft another linebacker later this month without question.

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles and LB Devin White – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The last thing Bowles, who needs to improve on the team’s 8-9 record last year, wants to do is replace his four-year starter and playmaker with an unproven rookie linebacker in what could be a crucial season in Tampa Bay. I can’t see Bowles signing off on trading White under any condition unless White becomes such an insubordinate employee and really says something personal to piss his head coach off.

Bowles has publicly defended White at every turn – even after the loss to the Ravens last year when Bucs legend and Hall of Famer Warren Sapp and Pewter Report called White out for loafing and not being accountable for his sub-par play.

White can do no wrong in Bowles’ eyes. The head coach has a blind spot for the linebacker he helped hand pick in 2019.

Which makes all of this seem a bit surreal. Why would White want to leave a coach who loves him so much?

For money?

Where is the loyalty?

Want more money? Fine, hold out of offseason workouts and training camp to try to make your point.

But asking for a trade in a pivotal year for a head coach and defensive play-caller who has done so much for White just crosses a line, and it’s put Bowles and the Bucs in a real bind. The team needs him to play this year on his fifth-year option and then see how things go during the 2023 season before deciding its next move.

Browns TE David Njoku and Bucs ILB Devin White – Photo by: USA Today

White needs to realize that neither the Bucs nor any NFL team is ready to give up draft pick compensation and immediately make him the league’s highest-paid linebacker. That’s just not going to happen.

Sitting out the 2023 season hurts White even more than it does the Bucs. Bowles and Licht will wind up fielding two starting-caliber linebackers come opening day – with or without White.

But if White pouts and sits out 2023 in a contract dispute because he didn’t get traded, then he’s stuck right back where he is right now – having to play on a fifth-year option and yet another year away from the big pay day he’s chasing.

At this point, White would be best served calling Bowles and apologizing for a trade request and trying to make amends by playing out his fifth-year option with his best season yet. Only by doing that will he get the lucrative contract he’s seeking in Tampa Bay – or elsewhere.

It’s time for White to realize that the Bucs have the upper hand in all of this, and for him to step back over the line he’s crossed.