Buccaneers' Handling of Devin White Injury vs. Packers to Be Reviewed by NFL

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy confirmed that the league is investigating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' decision to not downgrade linebacker Devin White from a "questionable" designation to "out" ahead of Sunday's win over the Green Bay Packers.

"We will review the matter with the club," McCarthy told Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio in an email.

Head coach Todd Bowles raised eyebrows, given the possibility of injury reporting violations, with comments he made on Monday about White's absence from Sunday's game.

"Devin told me Friday he couldn't play, or Saturday or Friday he couldn't play," he told reporters. "So K.J. [Britt] started."

Bowles tried to clear up the matter later in the week.

"I'm gonna say this one time," he told reporters Wednesday when asked about White's injury situation. "He was medically cleared to play. Then he indicated that he didn't feel right, and informed me that he couldn't play. He couldn't go. We had ongoing conversations until Sunday morning. I decided to deactivate him. When he got to the stadium he found out he was inactive."

Multiple reports had suggested that White being inactive wasn't injury related, however.

The 25-year-old had missed the previous two games with a foot injury. Whether he was healthy or not, Bowles indicated that Britt likely will continue seeing playing time in a rotation at the position:

The obvious speculation is that White perhaps isn't thrilled about a rotational role. Given that he never finished a season with fewer than 90 tackles, recorded triple-digit tackles three times in his career and was a Pro Bowler in 2021, that possibility wouldn't be the biggest surprise.

Given that potential context, Bowles' comments could have been a clumsy attempt to keep White's discontent out of the public spotlight. Or perhaps there was simply some miscommunication between the parties.

Either way, the situation has now earned the attention of the NFL.