Now that we're entering the camp portion of the offseason, with OTAs set to start next week across the league, teams are beginning to look ahead at what the future holds. Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Rachaad White is among that group, but he's looking beyond just this season and his time with the team.
Pewter Report passed along a tweet from Bucs GameDay's Matthew Hewitt of a story White posted to his Instagram. It's a cryptic message, to say the least, but not one that's very hard to read into. Essentially, it seems White's preparing for this to be his final season in Tampa Bay, which is both a good and bad thing.
It's not as shocking as it might seem given the context of his situation. Going back to last season, when Bucky Irving emerged as RB1 talent, the writing has seemingly been on the wall for White in terms of how much of a future he has in Tampa Bay.
Add to that he's entering a contract year and it's not hard to connect the dots of his message.
While it's tough to see someone like White already thinking about life after Tampa, it's not neccesiarly a bad thing he's in this mindset already. Because he's set to hit free agency next offseason, White has every incentive to ball out with the Bucs this year which is mutually beneficial given how much they'll need out of the offense.
This is less a situation like what we saw with Devin White two years ago and more a Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid type deal where everyone knows the relationship is on borrowed time but nobdy is trying to anything other than amicably end things.
A best-case scenario is White turning in a career year with the Bucs and earning himself a monster free agent contract somewhere else in the league. Everyone should be rooting for that, especially since has been nothing but a team player the entire time he's been in Tampa. He didn't cause a fuss like some might have when Bucky clearly passed him by, and is instead taking on the challenge of standing out to benefit both himself and the team.
That's an incredible testament to the culture the Bucs have built, and it's an early indication that we're in for another season of hungry players looking to prove their doubters wrong.
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