Like a lot of folks who grew up in this area, Kyzir White has fond memories of watching Eagles training camp at Lehigh University.
He remembers being a kid in the crowd a decade ago watching Mike Vick throw bombs to DeSean Jackson and watching LeSean McCoy juke defenders out of their shoes.
And it’s fitting that the first NFL game he ever attended was the Snow Bowl in 2013, when Shady rushed for a franchise record in a blizzard.
“That made me want to play for the Eagles,” White said on Tuesday during his introductory press conference at the NovaCare Complex. “Right after I left the game, I was like, ‘One day I want to throw on that Eagles uniform and suit up for them.’ Just to be here, it’s crazy how life comes full circle. I’m blessed to be here.”
White, 26, hopes he’s here for a long time too.
Right now, that’s not a given. The Macungie, Pennsylvania native, agreed to a one-year contract to join his hometown team last month, but it’s not the long-term deal he probably thought he was going to get in his first go-around in free agency.
Free agency unfolded much differently than White expected.
“It definitely did,” he said. “But everything happens for a reason and I’m glad I’m here now. I feel like I’m where I’m supposed to be and I feel like I’m going to make this thing work.”
Even general manager Howie Roseman said last week that he was surprised the Eagles were able to land White, who was coming off a career year with the Chargers, with 144 tackles, 2 interceptions and 2 forced fumbles in 17 starts.
White’s one-year deal is worth a modest $3 million with the maximum potential to be worth up to $5 million if he hits incentives. Despite a career year in 2021, White is still just the 40th highest-paid linebacker in the NFL.
So this isn’t even really a prove-it deal. It’s a “prove-it-again” deal.
“I’d love to be here for the rest of my career,” he said. “My family is back there (in the auditorium), this is where I want to be, man. One-year deal, bet on myself and just prove it again.”
White is hoping to break a disappointing streak of Eagles linebackers on one-year deals from Corey Nelson to Eric Wilson. If he does, it would go a long way to shore up a position that has been shaky for the Eagles in recent history.
He hasn’t been an Eagle for long, but White already feels at home. He has chatted with defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, met longest-tenured player Brandon Graham and even went out to dinner with his position coach Nick Rallis.
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White has been busy watching film too. Part of the reason he came to Philly was for the opportunity he’d get with the Eagles, but he doesn’t like when folks say the Eagles didn’t have linebackers before him. White on Tuesday talked up T.J. Edwards and a “few of the other young guys,” presumably Davion Taylor and Shaun Bradley.
White was initially a fourth-round pick out of West Virginia back in 2018 and the Chargers immediately converted the college safety to an NFL linebacker. That’s a transition that White knew was coming based on his pre-draft meetings with teams.
And now four years after that initial transition, White says he actually enjoys playing linebacker even more because there’s more action at that position.
It’s become commonplace in the modern NFL to convert bigger college safeties to linebackers. The thought here is that they will be big enough to thump but still athletic enough to cover running backs and tight ends in a league that is becoming more and more pass-happy with each season.
What are the Eagles getting in White?
“I think I’m a relentless player, high-energy guy, play with a lot of passions, heart, soul,” White said. “I ain’t the biggest, strongest or fastest, but I feel like I play with a lot of heart, toughness, grit, everything Philadelphia is made of. I feel like I’m the perfect fit.”
It seems like this fit was a long time coming.
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