Devin White’s NFL future looked shaky for months, but the former Raiders linebacker finally landed somewhere new on Saturday when the Detroit Lions signed him to a one-year deal after an injury to one of their linebackers at training camp.
For White, that’s a real turnaround from where things stood not long ago. He spent one season in Las Vegas, started and played nearly every snap under Pete Carroll, and never really won over Raider Nation. In fact, he was one of the more unpopular players to wear the Silver and Black in recent years.
The numbers from his 2025 season explain why the reaction was so harsh. White set a single-season franchise record for total tackles with 174, and in that sense he did help steady his career after shaky stretches in 2023 and especially 2024. But the tackle total only tells part of the story.
He was credited with 64 run stops, yet he also missed 26 tackles in 2025. Eight of his games featured two or more missed tackles, while only five games came without a miss. That kind of inconsistency showed up all year.
Coverage was an even bigger issue. According to Pro Football Focus, White was targeted 105 times and gave up 83 catches for 671 yards and a handful of touchdowns. He also finished with just one interception and three PBUs.
There were games where opposing offenses clearly made him the target, including multiple outings in which he allowed 10 receptions. He gave up at least two catches in every game and at least four in 11 of them. Pro Football Focus also charged him with 426 yards after the catch allowed, which lines up with his rough 36.1 coverage grade.
By the end of the season, the picture was hard to ignore: White allowed more receptions than any other linebacker in the league, the fourth-most yards and the sixth-most yards after catch. He also missed the second-most tackles in the NFL. Suddenly, that huge tackle number didn’t look nearly as impressive.
White’s time in Las Vegas came with extra noise, too. Beyond the on-field struggles, he got into a social media spat with a Buccaneers reporter who pointed out that volume tackles don’t mean much, and he also unsuccessfully called out Travis Kelce.
Given all that, it wouldn’t have been a surprise if White never found another team. Instead, the Lions gave him another shot.
He’ll be behind Jack Campbell, Malcolm Rodriguez and Derrick Barnes, with Damone Clark and Joe Bachie also in the mix, so a role won’t come easy. But that was said about him in Las Vegas, too.
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