Imagine the uproar if White goes for 500 yards and 3 TDs and then signed in....Green Bay. I can just see the posts now:
Why didn't Pace take the 5th year option on White? How come Pace doesn't resign our WRs?
Meh He's worth to us what he's worth. In a nutshell his situation isn't much different than Meredith's. White will be a UFA so we can't tender him but we could discuss options for a one year deal or a multi-year deal under new terms.
If he's at all productive Pace will have at least some idea of his worth and what he'd pay or he's not at all productive and we pass on him wishing him well wherever he lands. Anyone who believes we should have exercised a $14 mil option must also believe in the Easter Bunny and the Great Pumpkin.
I try to separate the emotional feelings I have over the past with White. He disappointed us. But that is water over the dam now. All that matters is his worth to the team moving forward. That is the bottom-line for Pace and Nagy. They have a season to make the final evaluation on him after this season of play. I think it's all up in the air at this point. The Bears will assess the entire unitIf they would determine they want him back then I figure I've got to "let it go" about the past disappointment with him.
I'm gonna try very hard here not to be unkind to Kevin White but rather to point out again what some of us have been claiming all along regarding his issues and probable defects as an NFL ready WR. As always Ryan Pace continues to provide excuses for White's play but if we read between the lines it's not to tough to cut to the chase and get the true message.
The NFL route tree is very demanding and even more so for a college player who never really learned it at that level. White could have benefited from more than one year at WVU. IMHO the talk about changing WR coaches is an excuse. The route tree is the same route tree for everyone. How it's used in various schemes and it's terminologies may change but it's a basic need to know deal for a WR just like blocking and tackling are for others and following your blocking is for a RB.
You can't really function without knowing and understanding it.
And then there's the mental issue. As we came to learn under 2017 WR coach Zach Azzani it would appear that Kevin White's psyche is nearly as fragile by now as the rest of his body. The kid's confidence is pretty well shot and that's if he truly had much of it to begin with. I have my doubts on that which is why I said that he could have benefited greatly from another year at WVU. IMHO the bottom line then is that he simply wasn't ready physically or emotionally for the NFL.
I'm not completely down on him. I think the greatest thing that could happen for his benefit and ours is for him to have a breakout season this year like Kyle Fuller did in 2017. It would be nice to see the career of yet another top draft pick rescued from the ash heap. My point here is only to use Ryan Pace's own words to further support why White was much of a "reach" as he was and it has nothing to do with anything other than his intellectual and emotional unpreparedness to play in the NFL. JMHO
The physical aspect is already well documented so there's no need to go there.
I'm less hard on Kevin White than I am on Ryan Pace for the mistake he made (and seemingly has learned from since) in picking him when and where he did.
We were a garbage, almost-talentless, and old team just starting a major rebuild in April 2015. We needed PLAYERS not PROJECTS at that point and lots of them. To use a baseball analogy, we needed our new GM to just put good wood on the ball and hit singles and doubles, not to swing for the fences and risk whiffing altogether. Like a baseball team who is down 4 runs in the 7th inning, we needed BASERUNNERS not solo home runs. Strategically, it was really really unwise for a brand new young GM just getting his feet wet (who didn't even have his own scouting team fully in place yet) to make such a risky, boom-or-bust type pick in the top-10 with his very first selection with his team in the position it was in at the time.
Then there's the point of positional value. How often is a WR truly worth a top-10 pick? Not very often IMHO as A) the position just doesn't tend to have the impact of a QB, pass-rusher, or LT and B) quality WRs tend to be available readily down-draft. We just picked a guy some think was the best WR in the draft this year in the mid-2nd round for crying out loud. Numerous other examples exist from the past. You simply don't need to spend to top-10 pick on the WR position unless the guy is a once-in-a-decade type NFL-ready player like Julio Jones or Larry Fitzgerald were.
Then there's the fact that Kevin White simply wasn't that great of a prospect, the drooling of some analysts over his "elite athleticism" aside. He had some stellar physical traits no question, but only 1 year of major college production with a very limited repertoire after a JUCO transfer. Is that the kind of prospect you want to spend a top-10 pick on? Take for instance another player who also played a position not normally top-10 worthy, OG. Quenton Nelson was widely regarded as the best OG prospect to come along in at least a decade. He also happened to be a multi-season award-winning stud in college who was widely regarded as as "safe" and "pro-ready" as any college prospect ever is. Big difference there.
Yes, it's a shame Kevin White has been derailed by injuries and yes, no one could have foreseen that. I hope he has a good year and can salvage his career. I have no doubt he's a good guy and will root for him as long as he's a Bear (which is 95% chance only for one more season). But none of that changes the above as to why he really wasn't a wise choice by Ryan Pace to begin with.
I'm inclined to add one more thing I'd like to highlight in Ryan Pace's comments.
“He’s fast, he will go up and attack the ball,” Pace said. “One thing that’s hard for Kevin, besides the injury, is we’ve been through three receiver coaches. We’ve changed the offense. It’s a transition for any player from a college offense to NFL, but it especially applies to receivers because the route tree is so much more demanding, the terminology increases so much. You can see Kevin getting more and more comfortable with his play, just playing fast instead of thinking so much. Our new receivers coach Mike Furrey is doing a good job, he’s really good.”
IMHO "thinking too much" is what happens when you don't have good instincts and top intellect and it applies not only in football but in every sport, in music, and in the business world daily. To succeed at a higher level it's imperative for someone to have learned the fundamentals involved. Or in other words, what we do and why we do it. Knowing that allows anyone to process rapidly incoming information faster and respond with the correct decision and action steps.
Kevin doesn't seem to process information very quickly and I believe one reason for that is he lacks some of that fundamental development that aids in also developing strong instincts. Whether it's because no one taught him this or they tried and failed I can't say but whichever it was there's something lacking in him. The light bulb is dim and unless Mike Furrey can succeed where others have failed I fear KW will also fail to ever reach his potential in the NFL.
I think most of us can agree that he's a bust who was overdrafted.
Overdrafted I would agree with although probably still worthy of a 1st round pick. Just not top ten.
A bust? So far yes but even I will withhold a final judgment and give him this one last year to prove himself useful in some way. I still feel Nagy and Furrey need to greatly simplify what's asked of him for now. His confidence is shot so let him do only what he learned to do successfully at WVU for now and let the chips fall where they may.
This kid is not gonna become an accomplished NFL route runner in just one year and this one year is all he has left as a Bears WR unless he can show something.