The Bears, as expected, will decline the fifth-year option on Kevin White’s rookie contract (per NFL Network's Mike Garafolo), meaning 2015’s seventh overall pick will become a free agent after the 2018 season. Guaranteeing nearly $14 million — the value of White’s fifth-year option — to a guy who’s only appeared in five games in three years was never realistic for the Bears.
In one sense, the pressure is off White in 2018. The Bears insulated themselves from having to rely on the oft-injured White to produce by signing Allen Robinson, Taylor Gabriel and Trey Burton and drafting Anthony Miller — a sharp deviation from 2017, when White would’ve been the team’s No. 1 receiver had he not suffered a season-ending fractured scapula in Week 1. This year, White very well could enter training camp as the fourth or fifth target, at best, on a theoretical pecking order.
The Bears want to see White stack quality practices to slowly build his confidence back up, and not having the pressure of being an offensive focal point could, potentially, help him in those efforts.
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“What matters is right now,” coach Matt Nagy said. “He’s young. He has a big ceiling. Now, we can try to do it as much as we can as coaches and try to pull it out of him, but he’s got to work hard. He’s got to put time in the playbook. He’s got to put in the extra work after practice when he can. And then when the game comes, he’s got to make plays. When you do that, his confidence will slowly get better and better.”
The flip side to this is that, without a guarantee of employment past 2018, there is some pressure on White to produce this year. Of the 83 wide receivers picked in the first round of an NFL Draft from 1997-2017, only six totaled fewer than 200 yards in their first three seasons. Two of those players — the Bengals’ John Ross and the Chargers’ Mike Williams — just finished their rookie seasons. Three of that group — Rashaun Woods, R. Jay Soward and Marcus Nash — quickly fell out of the league, but also were picked at the end of the first round. The other is White. Even A.J. Jenkins — one of the more notorious first-round whiffs at receiver — scraped together 223 yards in three years before being pushed out of the NFL.
The point: White might only have one more opportunity to prove to the Bears and the rest of the NFL that he’s worthy of a roster spot. Kyle Fuller was in a similar situation a year ago, having missed the entire 2016 season following uneven play in 2014 and 2015. A poor 2017 could’ve meant the end of his NFL career, in a worst-case scenario.
Fuller, of course, turned around his career with a strong season and earned himself a four-year, $56 million contract. Like White, the Bears weren’t counting on Fuller to produce last year, but he earned his way into a prominent role by stacking quality practices during training camp (circumstance didn’t hurt, either, with Prince Amukamara missing the season’s first two games and Marcus Cooper struggling to play consistently).
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“We talk about this all the time when players face adversity and guys overcome it,” Pace said in March. “Fuller is a great example of a player that has done that. It’s actually a trait you look for when you draft guys. Sometimes guys that have overcome adversity, that’s a good thing.
“Kevin has definitely had his fair share of adversity. Fortunately, he has the right personality and makeup, the family and support system around him to handle those moments. We’re looking forward to attacking this offseason with that.”
By all accounts, White has indeed taken the right approach to this pivotal offseason. Now, it's time to that to show up on the practice field and, later on, in games.
"I know a lot of people got a lot of bad stuff to say, but when he turns it around, you’ll see," White's brother, Kyzir, (a fourth-round pick of the Los Angeles Chargers), said at the Senior Bowl. "They’ll see for sure."