If the 2025 version feels like a long time coming for Buffalo Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White, well… it’s because that’s true. As the the player to be drafted by head coach Sean McDermott, White stormed onto the scene, leaving a proud legacy with the team and Bills Mafia alike. There was no one quite like Tre’ White and his goalie academy — nor his penchant for helping clear the field of opponent debris.
To be clear, White was among the league’s very best cornerbacks very early in his career. Then,
injury struck. Again and again in what seemed like an endless loop for the former All-Pro and Pro Bowl cornerback. It seemed as though White would never be the same, and worse — never suit up again for Buffalo’s defense. White would go on to spend a season away from One Bills Drive, a cap casualty made “easier” simply due to his injury history.
An older White coming off two serious lower-leg injuries, now away from Buffalo and working partial stints with the Los Angeles Rams and then later the Baltimore Ravens during the 2024 NFL season, many felt that general manager Brandon Beane had made the right decision to part ways with White. White simply looked lost or overmatched playing football on either the west or east coast.
But that adversity, and his desire to prove stronger than his injuries, may have just fueled the 30-year-old version that Tre’ White has become in his second stint with the Bills. When announcements of White’s return to Buffalo first made headlines, the news was met with heavy skepticism and angst. Confusion reigned, wondering what Beane was thinking in bringing back White mere weeks before the 2025 NFL Draft got underway.
The truth was that White was observed to be a contingency plan — someone the team could lean on should other plans not pan out via the draft or otherwise. Someone who could also help bring along young defensive backs. After Buffalo selected cornerback Maxwell Hairston with their first-round pick, observers began to calm a bit. Then, injury struck early in training camp and Hairston was to begin the season on Injured Reserve (IR).
That injury opened the door for White, who, while a bit rusty in a starting role, quickly regained the form so many cheered him for in the past. After Hairston’s stint on IR was over, he was brought back to the practice fold quickly, and began sharing snaps at CB2 with White. It was a partnership that seemed to favor both players. It allowed Hairston to get up to speed, and put White in position to succeed at this point of his career as a heady player fully dialed in as a tackling machine.
In tandem with starting cornerback Christian Benford, White and Hairston’s partnership was a huge success the second half of the season and a big part of why the Bills finished with the top-ranked passing defense. If opponents weren’t willing to throw Benford’s way, that meant White and Hairston had to hold up their end of the deal, and they did so better than anyone could have predicted.
Then, injury struck again in Week 18. Hairston went down late in the fourth quarter after suffering an apparent ankle injury. His status was almost immediately in doubt for Buffalo’s playoff game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Could Tre’ White do it again, on his own, and now with injury coming at the worst possible time?
In his tenure with the Bills, McDermott has grown used to adverse injury situations. Almost never has he seen a fully healthy starting defense enter the postseason. It’s not unique to McDermott and Buffalo, but his teams have experienced what seems to be an excessive number of injuries — especially on defense.
Entering Sunday’s game in Jacksonville, the loss of Hairston loomed large with fans and analysts. After all, quarterback Trevor Lawrence had been carving up opposing defenses at will the second half of the regular season, thanks in part to a deep group of pass catchers. It felt inevitable that Lawrence would do similar things to Buffalo’s depleted secondary, regardless of their top ranking.
But White had shown all season that worrying was useless. The game is decided on the field and White was more than ready for the challenge. Against the Jaguars, White was officially credited with two tackles and three pass defenses. Those defended passes were instrumental to the Bills winning the franchise’s first road game since 1992.
White continually denied Lawrence and his receivers the connection they counted on, helping to end promising drives. Saving his best for last, White got to a third throw of Lawrence’s knocking it off target and into the path of safety Cole Bishop, who scooped it up to seal victory for the Bills. White’s efforts were made even more impressive following the loss of fellow veteran safety Jordan Poyer, who reportedly re-aggravated his hamstring injury.
The next time White takes the field, he’ll be 31 years old. With a Divisional Round playoff game on Saturday, January 17 in Colorado against the Denver Broncos, White will once again be up for the challenge, regardless of Hairston’s injury status. What once felt like a career cut far too short thanks to injury now feels like a Bills story for the ages — a player doing the most unlikely things off debilitating back-to-back ACL and Achilles injuries.
The NFL journey only gets more difficult with time, simply because it’s a game for young men. But to count out White on Saturday, a day after his 31st birthday, would be unwise. A veteran White has proven more than capable of putting the NFL on notice and the Tre’ White Goalie Academy is back in business.
