Devin White confident with his short play time

Let’s be swift and unpopular: rookie inside linebacker Devin White hasn’t been noticed too much in his first 2 preseason games. Not to say he’s “bad” just saying he hasn’t been too visible. A lot of factors can attribute to that, however. Like the fact that he’s been Bruce Arians’ defensive bell cow when he’s been on the field and for a rookie that can be a massive adjustment. Or, just a simple point of him needing more time on the field to get to where he needs to be. Then there’s also the fact that he’s played a maximum of 3 series per game and come straight off the field. There’s no real determinate factor for it yet.

Feature Image Credit: LB Devin White - Photo by: Cliff Welch/Pewter Report

Devin White himself feels pretty confident in the matter when asked if he needs more playing time to adjust. Stating:

“Not really – football is football, but I would like to play because it’s fun. It isn’t fun sitting on the sideline. I’ve been through those days when I was a freshman and stuff when I had to wait one series in the first half and one series in the second half. Now, I’m just ready to go, but the older guys keep preaching to me, ‘It’s going to be a long season. You are going to get plenty of time where you are going to say, Golly, the season is still going on?’ So, I am just being patient right now. If you give me one quarter, I’ll be happy with it. Two quarters – I’ll be extremely happy with it, but I’m just going to do whatever the coaching staff says. At the end of the day, Coach  Arians has been coaching for a long time and he knows what is best for the players.”

It’s the preseason, so the speculation is everywhere and there’s no real high bar set by anyone but the players and coaches for performance right now. Hopefully, when the season starts, he gets unleashed a bit more and 4 quarters showcase him more. We know he’ll be ready.