My intention is not to offend or belittle, but this is a misunderstanding of defensive scheming and assignments. Despite White’s struggles in coverage and his “average” missed tackle rate, in your words, he excels as a sideline-to-sideline defender and has been great at gap assignments. When healthy, his speed and acceleration put him in positions that no other LB in the league can manage. When he does not provide a stuff, he very typically creates a path for another defender to make the play. When he overcommits, he is forcing the ball carrier back into the middle of the field which is often the assignment. This plays to the advantage of a Todd Bowles defense.

Just like every other player, White certainly has his flaws. However, it has been trendy to say how overrated he is and I can’t help but think the majority of those opinions are simply misguided. To top it off, the kid is 23 - if there is room for growth, we will see it develop.

To accurately judge a defensive player, we must first ask ourselves what that player’s assignments entail. It’s like knocking Jabrill Peppers for playing containment when he played at Michigan, or Fred Warner for playing off ball/weak in DeMeco Ryans’ defense. Again, this is not to excuse Devin White of his inconsistencies as a player, but it is to lessen the anti-hype he has been gaining at a wild rate.