The Raiders entered the 2025 season with a lot of questions at linebacker, and after two months, it’s still a work in progress as the coaching staff tries to figure out how to get the most from their revamped linebacker group.
One of the key members of this year’s linebacker room has been former Super Bowl champion Devin White, who is tied with Jeremy Chinn for the most defensive snaps on the team (178) through the first seven games of the season.
It’s been an up and down start to the year for White, and he talked last month about some of the challenges he has faced with a new defensive scheme in Las Vegas – including, it seems, a coaching staff that’s still trying to mesh two defensive schemes together.
“I think the biggest transition is it’s just a different style of play than what I’m used to,” White said on the Nightcap podcast. “You know, I always been a simulated pressure type of guy from… college to Todd Bowles in the NFL and just coming to this new scheme and just kind of, you know, being a little more zony. You know, it’s been different from me.”
“At the end of the day I think we can hit our stride,” White continued. “We’re starting to find out our identity, who we are, because you got Coach Pete and you got Coach [Patrick Graham]. They clashing together, two good defensive-minded guys trying to find our identity and I think that’s what’s going on.”
White also addressed another storyline that occupied a few headlines during training camp.
For no clear reason, White’s former GM in Tampa Bay, Jason Licht, said he regretted ever drafting White with the Buccaneers.
“Knowing what I know now, he would have been off my board,” Buccaneers GM Todd Licht told The Athletic’s Dan Pompei in August about White. “It was too much about him.”
White said he heard Licht’s comments and doesn’t believe he’s telling the truth.
“Even with Lavonte David, dog on the team, I led the team in tackles… I got turnovers in, you know, and made big plays. And then for him to come out and say what he said, ‘Man, we hosted a Super Bowl trophy together.’ So none of that matter, you know, he know he’d do it again, because I helped him, obviously, on that run that we made. I feel like I was a key part of that, you know. No cocky.”
Overall, it’s been a challenging year for the Raiders’ linebacker group, starting with the loss of veteran linebacker Germaine Pratt, who requested his release after just four games with the team.
Pratt was released following the Colts game, and White said he has been playing the WILL linebacker spot ever since.
Whether he’s been better or not, Pro Football Focus has White as the lowest-graded linebacker on the Raiders this year, while the player essentially replaced has been thriving in New England.
Robert Spillane is having arguably the best year of his career with the Patriots and there’s no guarantee any of the Raiders’ starting linebackers will be back for an encore in 2026.
The Raiders host the Jaguars this week in Las Vegas and there’s a good chance the Jaguars are going to look to attack White in the passing game. To this point in the season, White has been targeted in coverage 41 times and given up 33 receptions.
According to Pro Football Focus, White has given up a whopping 170 yards after catch on those 33 receptions, and 242 receiving yards overall – second most on the Raiders behind Kyu Blu Kelly (399).
On a positive note, White had a tremendous effort against the Titans in week six, making arguably the biggest defensive play of the season.
x: @raidersbeat
He’s a liability in coverage. All our linebackers are.
The more that is said, the more my opinion is reinforced… This New Regime is terrible at Player Evaluation and on where and How to play the Players who show any promise. Again the Raiders are a Dumpster Fire. As bad as or even worse than the McClown Years… when is The Front Office Going to figure out the Coaching and GM positions? The last reasonable Duo was Gruden and Maylock. Not only are Many of their Personnel Picks still in the league producing (or even still on the Raiders) but the coaching was Really Good. The Team even made the Playoffs even after the Gruden Assassination and the unfortunate choice made by emerging star Henry Ruggs. They started off 3-0 and, after mentally settling down, got to the Playoffs. McClown arrived and got rid of All Team Leaders because his ego was so fragile he wanted to be the Only Voice… Just WoW
Mark Davis makes the same mistake over and over. Be hires the big personality at head coach and then brings in a GM to complement them. Almost all successful teams hire a GM first, that owns all team operations. That includes responsibility for coach selection and management. Then they can match the personnel to the systems being run. When you go coach first, the coach has too much say on personnel and that seems to always lead to short sighted decisions and/or conflicts with the GM.
I really wish Mark would just decide on a GM and then stay 1000 miles away from who coaches the team. Hold the GM accountable and call it a day. Maybe Spytek can grow into that guy. We won’t know whether he can or not until Carroll is gone and we see how he handles bringing in his own coaching staff.
You are both correct. After that crazy year of making the playoffs, Mark should’ve rode with Bisciaa/Mayock. They had the team backing those 2 & we could know see what Mayock could do with final say.
But see Mark’s man crush besides Gruden is Brady. So he got rid of all team chemistry to bring in McDonalds so he could ditch Carr for his shot @ Brady. Gruden intelligently said no but Mark is a spoiled kid who won’t hear “no”. Also see his insistence to Del Rio bring in Marshawn
Mayock and Gruden completely whiffed on most of their first round picks, the only real unqualified success was a running back, which as we are seeing this year is hardly a needle mover. If it wasn’t for Maxx Crosby, their draft record would look even worse. They backed their way into the playoffs during a year they were outscored on the season.
With all the draft capital they wasted, it’s an insult comparing them to McKenzie, who took a team that topped out at 8-8 with one of the worst cap situations on NFL history, took them out of the stone age (the Raiders scouting department was barely using computers during Al’s last year’s), completely rebuilt the roster, and by year 5, they were 12-4 and a legitimate Super Bowl contender before Carr broke his leg. Even the bad McKenzie picks (DJ Hayden, Karl Joseph, Conley) had more accomplished careers than Damon Arnette, Jonathan Abram, Alex Leatherwood, and yes, Henry Ruggs, too. Clelin Ferrell has sick around as a depth piece, but McKenzie drafted Khalil Mack and Amari Cooper when he had top 5 picks, so I doubt he would have taken Ferrell over Hines-Allen or Brian Burns. Hell, he probably would have done what most sane teams do when they have All-Pro players holding out on their 5th year option, and just paid the man a fair contract.
Gruden deserved exactly what he got for sending stupid, low-class, bigoted crap with his WORK email. Good riddance. He could coach an offense decently enough, but that was all he brought to the table.
Leave Mayock’s name out of it. It was a dictatorship and he was there only to be a scapegoat for Gruden’s failures.
We have not had a defensive “QB” MLB since Superbowl (era). The same goes for the actual QB. No leadership on either side of the ball. The coach and Gm have not been on the same page since Al Davis dementia. We have not drafted a position of strength since I can remember. The Raider mystic is a mystery and illusion. Something’s wrong with the football operations department, and that virus needs to go – be eradicated.
#exhausterfan
Geno Smith is trash. Pure garbage.
I said, before the season began, that the Raiders should have traded, with New England, for Joshua Dobbs. He’s younger, faster, cheaper and smarter than Geno Smith. Team Turmoil won’t get it right for another 3 years, at least. So, devoted Raiders fans, just accept the inevitable and suffer in silence until then.
Your point is very weird since Dobbs was a free agent and not with the NE Patriots at the beginning of the season. I’m in agreement that the trade for Geno was a terrible decision but they made it worse with his extension. This season was over as soon as Mark gave Tom ownership shares and then together they decided that Pete and Spytek were the best combination. Utterly terrible decisions.
Way to go Carlson. This team stinks. At this point in the season, they are worse than last year. Time to transfer to the nearest Pop Warner League.
And the guy across the field sticks, a 68 yarder in his face. Our kicker is overpaid and highly overrated. He’s no longer a top 10 kicker in the league.
Geno Smith is pure garbage. He should not be starting and if Carroll is going to insist on starting him, then Carroll needs to be fired.
Up and down is awful generous. He’s had a handful of impact plays, but is one of the biggest reasons teams have been able to beat the Raiders over the middle all year. He is single-handedly showing the worthlessness of raw tackle numbers, both because of those he has missed and those that have come well after giving up successful plays for opposing offenses.
Pete Carroll hadn’t seemed to notice, though, which is why they’re playing these washed up veterans and still one of the worst teams in the league.
Our offensive line is the worst in the league. And the failure to make appropriate changes shows antiquated coaching more stubborn than a 30 year-old Billy goat