Anybody else surprised the Bills haven’t brought Tre White back (yet)?

[BillsDad51]

2 hours ago, SoonerBillsFan said:

It was tipped to him, then he got cooked against Denver.

 

Its past time to move on.

For the record, Tre tipped that pass. Bishop caught it to close out Jax hopes.

Edited May 5 by BillsDad51

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

1 hour ago, PoundingDog said:

Bills need to add speed and get younger, especially on defense. I believe Beane and the coaching staff are doing that. Remember adding a guy like White means you are kicking a younger guys off the squad. Beane is intentional to not having to have a Dane Jackson around any more. Plus the prototype has changed. 

 

Look at how many Bills FA defensive players out there in the market who played significant number of snaps in 2025 RIGHT now: Tre'Davious White, DaQuan Jones, AJ Epenesa, Jordan Phillips, Jordan Poyer, Matt Milano, Shaq Thompson, Larry Ogunjobi. Do we see a pattern?

 

If the vets want to come back to the Bills, they have to go the route of Poyer last year: practice squad. I don't know White and many others wants to do that. This team has a lot of youth and depth, especially on defense that they will give opportunity to.

 

Basically a dollars thing too.  Can't use cap space at this juncture on anything that isn't an impact type player, which at this point probably requires a trade.  

 

We don't need another corner, but someone like lattimore is available if you do.  Trevon Diggs for another team if you're looking for a cheap player to see if they can regain value.

 

Its a tough free agent market out there AND there's another new batch of rookies people want to look at.  You slowly get nudged out of the league as a guy like Tre.  Based on the individual though, i'd absolutely consider bringing him back.  Physical limitations be damned, and even with the poor playoff game - he can still ball.  Ideally he's not playing in the damn playoffs, just popping in midseason if someone's potentially hurt (or a rookie is struggling).  

 

Bosa looked like he wasn't fast enough anymore.  When healthy he was getting after the QB some, but he's not healthy so you have to evaluate what you're actually going to get.  An overly aggressive edge who isn't a strong run defender and can lose QB contain upfield.  There's also... Reddick, Floyd, Danna, Gross-matos, Miller, Fowler available still in the same budget.  

 

Milano.. . there are 32 teams, most teams carry 2 so 64 weak-side linebacker spots.  And he's spent more time in the training room than on the field.  It's hard to get a job when a bunch of rookies come in year after year.  

 

[PoundingDog]

10 minutes ago, Bleeding Bills Blue said:

Bosa looked like he wasn't fast enough anymore.  When healthy he was getting after the QB some, but he's not healthy so you have to evaluate what you're actually going to get.

Thank you. I forgot Bosa. That makes it 9 players on D who had a lot of snaps in 2025 for a superbowl contending team that no one wants this year. That tells you how the league viewed our D last year. Could a rookie or 2nd year player do better? That seems to be the gamble Beane, Brady and Leonhard are willing to take, and partly it is out of necessity for cap reasons. For example, Joey Bosa (1 year deal about $12 million 2025) void years accelerated to a cap hit of $7.2 million in 2026. Tre White (1 year $6.8 million 2025) void years resulted about $3 million cap hit in 2026. 

Edited May 5 by PoundingDog

[MikePJ76]

2 hours ago, SoonerBillsFan said:

It was tipped to him, then he got cooked against Denver.

 

Its past time to move on.

Tre Tipped the pass that Bishop intercepted to end the game.  He made the damn play.

 

Also earlier in the game he knocked down and almost picked a ball off that would have been a TD on a 3rd down.  

 

He would be a great signing to have as the 4th corner who could step in at anytime and play regardless of the scheme.  If white had to play you just make adjustments to help him.   

 

 

[BuffaloBillyG]

I'm not shocked. 

 

I see Tre as a guy that would come in and possibly take snaps away from Max Hairston. They really need Max to start and see what we have in him this year. I definitely see them bringing in a vet for depth. But I don't think it will be someone that pushes Max or IGB for that matter for playtime 

[MJS]

3 hours ago, SoonerBillsFan said:

Nope.  Its past time to turn the page on the guys McDermott constantly kept brining back, and get some youth on this team.

Beane brought them back, but otherwise I agree. Time to move on.

[machine gun kelly]

Tre is a backup option at this point.  He can easily come in when needed, but can also be in the hopper if injuries happen.  I understand waiting.

[PoundingDog]

26 minutes ago, MJS said:

Beane brought them back, but otherwise I agree. Time to move on.

Ummm I don't think GMs in this league are going to force a FA player onto the coaches. Plenty example of draft picks, but not in filling  a hole on the roster or getting a backup from FA pool. The personnel department may say here is the list of guys i can get and the expected cost (in terms of cap) that fit your description. No way they sign a guy to the dotted line without the coaches approval (like meeting them actually and go into technical details). 

[dave mcbride]

52 minutes ago, MikePJ76 said:

Tre Tipped the pass that Bishop intercepted to end the game.  He made the damn play.

 

Also earlier in the game he knocked down and almost picked a ball off that would have been a TD on a 3rd down.  

 

He would be a great signing to have as the 4th corner who could step in at anytime and play regardless of the scheme.  If white had to play you just make adjustments to help him.   

 

 

Well said. No one is saying he's going to be the #1 CB. And as I said above, one of the three top corners will get injured at some point. I'd bet a lot of money on that because it's the sort of thing that happens every damn year. 

[MJS]

26 minutes ago, PoundingDog said:

Ummm I don't think GMs in this league are going to force a FA player onto the coaches. Plenty example of draft picks, but not in filling  a hole on the roster or getting a backup from FA pool. The personnel department may say here is the list of guys i can get and the expected cost (in terms of cap) that fit your description. No way they sign a guy to the dotted line without the coaches approval (like meeting them actually and go into technical details). 

I'm sure there is some collaboration as there should be, but Beane always did and continues to control the roster. He does not sign a guy he doesn't want to. Saying that McDermott brought them back is just untrue. You can say Beane brought them back with McDermott approval if you want. Fine. But we can only speculate on the level of involvement from McDermott, when we know for a fact that Beane is the actual guy who brings players back.

[NewEra]

5 hours ago, eball said:

Particularly given Beane’s secondary depth fears, I’m surprised this hasn’t happened. Tre is currently unsigned and I think we’d all agree he had a pretty good season. Seems like a no-brainer to add his experience (and skill) to that room.

 

 

I don’t think they’d have room for another db that doesn’t play ST.

 

considerinr current roster, he’d be a ps guy imo.  I would think that he’d prefer to stick on a roster

[eee1776]

5 hours ago, eball said:

Particularly given Beane’s secondary depth fears, I’m surprised this hasn’t happened. Tre is currently unsigned and I think we’d all agree he had a pretty good season. Seems like a no-brainer to add his experience (and skill) to that room.

 

I agree, He did have a good season. I think they gave away his number though.

 

 

[PoundingDog]

4 minutes ago, MJS said:

Beane is the actual guy who brings players back

Technically yes - personnel department headed by Beane offers and signs a contract with any player. But the decision is not exclusively with the GM in these cases, i.e., different from the GM pulls the card in draft room. 

 

Not every team operates the same. But I do know for the Steelers, the Personnel department has ranked FAs with their traits (in NFL), and tapes, along with expected cost. It's pretty much up to the coaches to decide who to bring in and to go over schemes etc. Very different from prospective draft picks.

 

You can point to Darius Slay situation last year resulting the Bills lost Ingram and say Beane bungled it. I have to imagine McDermott approved (may even initiated) the decision to claim and wanted Slay but he was unhappy Beane did not find out Slay's intention of playing for the Eagles only before the decision of claiming. Technically you are not allowed to contact Slay to get his intention but I'm sure it's a given any GM should be able to find out about it. I again I don't see it as Beane forced Slay onto McDermott.

[BillsFanForever19]

5 hours ago, eball said:

Particularly given Beane’s secondary depth fears, I’m surprised this hasn’t happened. Tre is currently unsigned and I think we’d all agree he had a pretty good season. Seems like a no-brainer to add his experience (and skill) to that room.

 

 

 

Not even a little surprised.

 

This is kind of a repeat of something I've said a couple times. But first off we didn't spend that kind of asset for IGB to be the #4 Boundary CB on the 53.

 

And we don't generally keep 4 Boundary CB's on the 53 anyways. Often times the total number of CB's is 5 - including 2 Nickel's. Even if we kept 4 Boundary on the 53, we would be unlikely to dress 4

 

On top of all that, I think IGB was taken and taken where he was bc of his Press Man skills. He's not only insurance for Hairston and Benford on the injury front - I think he's insurance for if one of them doesn't take to the new scheme as well. Which I see as going from Zone focused to Press Man focused.

 

Tre White is a tremendous Zone Corner. As myself and others have said, he was practically built in a lab to play McDermott's scheme. That's why he looked so much better last season. It wasn't that he was so tremendously healthier than the year before - it's because he was asked to do things on other teams that didn't fit his strengths. And with McDermott, he played to his strengths.

 

McDermott isn't here anymore. Neither is the Zone focused scheme. And Press Man is not Tre's game. It's a weakness. It's why he looked so bad in LA. So he likely wasn't a fit even if we hadn't filled his roster spot with a big investment.

[dave mcbride]

18 minutes ago, BillsFanForever19 said:

 

Not even a little surprised.

 

This is kind of a repeat of something I've said a couple times. But first off we didn't spend that kind of asset for IGB to be the #4 Boundary CB on the 53.

 

And we don't generally keep 4 Boundary CB's on the 53 anyways. Often times the total number of CB's is 5 - including 2 Nickel's. Even if we kept 4 Boundary on the 53, we would be unlikely to dress 4

 

On top of all that, I think IGB was taken and taken where he was bc of his Press Man skills. He's not only insurance for Hairston and Benford on the injury front - I think he's insurance for if one of them doesn't take to the new scheme as well. Which I see as going from Zone focused to Press Man focused.

 

Tre White is a tremendous Zone Corner. As myself and others have said, he was practically built in a lab to play McDermott's scheme. That's why he looked so much better last season. It wasn't that he was so tremendously healthier than the year before - it's because he was asked to do things on other teams that didn't fit his strengths. And with McDermott, he played to his strengths.

 

McDermott isn't here anymore. Neither is the Zone focused scheme. And Press Man is not Tre's game. It's a weakness. It's why he looked so bad in LA. So he likely wasn't a fit even if we hadn't filled his roster spot with a big investment.

Denver ran zone more than man last year. It's always going to be a big part of the defense no matter who is in charge.

[MJS]

31 minutes ago, PoundingDog said:

Technically yes - personnel department headed by Beane offers and signs a contract with any player. But the decision is not exclusively with the GM in these cases, i.e., different from the GM pulls the card in draft room. 

 

Not every team operates the same. But I do know for the Steelers, the Personnel department has ranked FAs with their traits (in NFL), and tapes, along with expected cost. It's pretty much up to the coaches to decide who to bring in and to go over schemes etc. Very different from prospective draft picks.

 

You can point to Darius Slay situation last year resulting the Bills lost Ingram and say Beane bungled it. I have to imagine McDermott approved (may even initiated) the decision to claim and wanted Slay but he was unhappy Beane did not find out Slay's intention of playing for the Eagles only before the decision of claiming. Technically you are not allowed to contact Slay to get his intention but I'm sure it's a given any GM should be able to find out about it. I again I don't see it as Beane forced Slay onto McDermott.

That's fine, but any involvement from McDermott we can only speculate about, whereas we know for a fact that Beane was intimately involved in the process of bringing players here, because that is his job.

 

Fans were assuming that McDermott had a heavy hand in the draft and that it would be different with him gone. Then Beane went out and drafted pretty much the exact same way he always has, showing that any speciation on McDermott pressing on the scale was extremely overblown if not outright false. The same could easily be assumed about free agents. It is clear that Beane likes his guys and believes in them. Many of them he drafted or signed in the first place, and the ones like White who predated him, he grew to love as well because of their impact on the organization.

[aceman_16]

6 hours ago, eball said:

Particularly given Beane’s secondary depth fears, I’m surprised this hasn’t happened. Tre is currently unsigned and I think we’d all agree he had a pretty good season. Seems like a no-brainer to add his experience (and skill) to that room.

 

 

Nope... it at all

[Bill from NYC]

I am not surprised. If McDermott was here he most likely signed him to a huge contract, and taken him on a lunch date to chat and reflect upon draft day, 2017.

[Buftex]

5 hours ago, colin said:

i think he and cooks could sign for cheap, but it's a question of is there room?  i think shaq, and to a lesser extent maybe bosa or milano, are in a similar stead, but will likely want more than the bills are willing to pay.

 

i really hope dorian strong comes back, and i think hancock is going to develop, and we will have a bit of an embarrassment of dbs

Honestly, for the right price (which goes without saying) I wouldn't be upset if they brought any of those guys back.  Cooks, Thompson and Tre all had solid seasons...and if I am being honest, I wouldn't be pissed (for the right price) if they brought Von Miller back for one more season.  He had a pretty solid season in Washington, and he seems very motivated to play..as opposed to just get paid.  But, who knows...I am so curious as to what this defense is going to look like

 

[ColoradoBills]

6 hours ago, boater said:

I'm wary of the "bring him back at the Vet minimum--he can be a mentor" situations. That's what coaches are for and they don't take up a roster spot or count against the salary cap.

 

Also, there has to be a balance of young and old on the roster. For every crusty old vet you bring back, you are denying a spot for a developing promising player for future use. The Bills are in the middle of the pack for NFL roster age, I takes work to keep it that way.

 

In August, if the Bills don't like their roster--sign Tre. If he is snatched up by then--oh, well.

 

 

 

 

 

Well said.  You go with the youth to begin camp.  If Tre is available if they need him sign him.  If he wants to be on the PS, all the better!