Getty Tre'Davious White watches from the sidelines before a Buffalo Bills game.
The Buffalo Bills are growing ever closer to the return of Tre’Davious White and expect the All-Pro cornerback to play a significant number of games this season, but one insider is raising concerns about his level of play after suffering a significant injury.
White suffered a season-ending ACL tear in last year’s Thanksgiving night game, and has steadily worked his way back through the offseason. The Bills placed White on the physically unable to perform list which means he will miss at least the first four games of the season, but he could be able to return not long afterward.
Whether White can immediately regain his All-Pro form could be another question, noted The Athletic’s Joe Buscaglia.
White’s Return to Bills Could Be Tenuous
As Buscaglia noted, White would be eligible to return starting with the Oct. 9 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, but that would be inside of the one-year timeframe that typically comes with an ACL rehab. Even if White is ready to play in Week 5, Buscaglia cautioned that it could take much longer to fully recover from a torn ACL.
“Not only is rust a factor, but there are countless examples throughout the NFL of a player coming from such a serious injury and that long of an absence to where they don’t regain their same level of play until the following year,” he wrote. “The Bills would love to have White back at full capacity and how he played before the injury, but it would be far safer to temper the expectations of what he’ll be this season.”
We’ve placed CB Tre’Davious White on the Reserve/PUP list. #BillsMafia
Details: t.co/PfLJsNSvpH
While there are plenty of examples of players who have returned from an ACL tear well inside of a year, there are others who returned earlier than expected and suffered subsequent injuries. The most infamous case was former No. 1 overall pick Sam Bradford, who tore his ACL in Week 7 of the 2013 NFL season, then tore it again in a 2014 preseason game.
Buscaglia wrote that the Bills may not have to rush White back too much thanks to the support from All-Pro safety tandem of Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde and some new additions to the defense to create more pressure up front.
“The good news for the Bills is they have a built-in support system if early on White is only 80 percent of the player he was before the injury,” he wrote. “They brought in five new pieces to the defensive line and seem quite optimistic about the pass-rushing chances of the group they’ve put together relative to previous seasons.”
Bills Looking to Rookie Cornerbacks Kaiir Elam, Christian Benford
While White is finishing up the final stages of his rehab, the Bills could look to a rookie duo to pick up much of the slack. First-round pick Kaiir Elam and sixth-round pick Christian Benford are both slated to play major roles opposite veteran Dane Jackson.
Grace Heidinger of BuffaloBills.com noted that Elam and Benford are set to split time in Thursday night’s season opener against the Los Angeles Rams, and both earned an endorsement from Bills defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier.
“They both had good training camps for us,” Frazier said. “We’ll mix it up in the ballgame and see how things are going as the game goes on.”