For four weeks now we’ve been asking fans of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to pick the best player from each week’s contest. And for four weeks now, a defensive player has taken the title of Bucs Nation Community Player of the Week, as Devin White has become your selection for Week 13.
White, who boasted a stat line of seven tackles, one tackle for loss, one quarterback hit, one interception, two passes defended, one fumble recovery and one touchdown coming off that fumble recovery, also became the third rookie to win the honor and first Buccaneers player to win for the second time this season.
The rookie linebacker jumped out to a strong lead in voting early, but was eventually challenged by veteran linebacker Shaquil Barrett.
Barrett, who turned in three tackles, two sacks, one tackle for loss, four quarterback hits, and forced the fumble White took in for a score, took home 45% of the votes, while White nabbed 54%. For those who don’t want to do the math, that’s 99% of the votes between the two linebackers.
The other one percent went to wide receiver Breshad Perriman who came up big against the Jacksonville Jaguars with five catches for 87-yards.
As White collected the early vote lead, he also received some early support in the comment section.
“Its gotta be White
He was ALL OVER THE PLACE this game, and Im super excited to see him do well
Although, shoutout to Perriman for playing well. I agree he probably should have been gone a while ago, but at least he’s doing well enough to make me go ‘Eh, alright’ instead of being upset” - TheShuWarrior
“It should be Devin and it’s not even close
This was easily his best game as a pro, he’s really been coming on strong since the Seahawks game.” - OneBucPerson
As the voters pointed out, White has had a strong second half of the season thus far, and still has four more contests this year to develop even further. At least on Buccaneers fan is starting to sway on their feelings towards the 2019 first-round pick, as many were displeased with their team investing such a high pick in an off-ball linebacker.
“I didn’t think it was likely at the start of the season, but I actually voted for White. I’m really hoping he keeps this up and I have to eat crow on his selection. I found a new recipe that’s supposed to make it more edible…
Also never thought I’d say this…but Perriman probably would’ve been my second choice from that list. I expect these kinds of games from Barrett now, but Perriman had some surprisingly nice catches including that toe dragger that got overturned.” - KRoa
Other candidates had a strong outing in Week 13, but just weren’t able to compete with the breakout game by White and another strong performance by perhaps the most valuable free-agent signing in the league, coming from Barrett.
Peyton Barber and Sean Murphy-Bunting will just have to be happy to be nominated at this point, as each failed to notch a single vote. Again, hard to compete with those two linebackers though.
Will the offense get into the Bucs Nation Community Player of the Week game after Week 14? We’ll all have to wait and see who the nominees are following this weekend’s match-up between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Indianapolis Colts, but if history is any sign, a win will likely mean some solid defensive candidates.
Thanks as always to those who voted and to those who stated their cases for their nominees in the comments!