Tre’Davious White brings familiar spark to OTAs in Buffalo Bills return
After spending a year around the league, the longtime Bills CB is back where he belongs in Buffalo.
www.nytimes.com
Bedecked in his all too familiar No. 27, Tre’Davious White darted around the practice field in Orchard Park with a similarly familiar exuberance, engaging with many of his teammates around him.
It didn’t take long for White to start feeling back at home in Buffalo.
After one year away with other teams, White, the longtime starting cornerback for the Bills and first draft pick of the Sean McDermott era in 2017, returned to the very practice field last week where he grew into the All-Pro who helped lead the defense for years. And on his first day of organized team activities, he quickly reassimilated into his longstanding role as a favored teammate.
When the defense breaks off to the second field for the installation portion of practice, the White of old is as clear as day. White and defensive tackle Ed Oliver — teammates for five years before this one — pick right back up where they left off.
It wasn’t even an hour or so into their first practice, and in between installation reps, Oliver played the part of boxing trainer to White, putting his hands up as faux strike pads and calling out the right-left combinations he wanted next from White.
It’s an example of the camaraderie he built up over the years, but several small moments build to a bigger reason for his return. What is old is new again for the Bills in 2025.
His jersey number was issued to veteran practice squad safety Kareem Jackson last year, but it’s White’s once more. And White even has his longtime locker stall back, too, as if he never left.
“It’s awesome because he’s pretty funny. He’s an awesome guy. Great soul,” said top cornerback Christian Benford, who played two seasons with White. “I’ll be chilling, and he brings, like, mad energy, so it’s good to have somebody like him in the building, in the DB room.”
“Having guys like that back in the building, man, it makes my job so much funner,” nickel Taron Johnson added. “He’s been through some tough, tough injuries. But just seeing him bounce back and him still having that same attitude is great.”
Johnson has, perhaps, the closest bond with White as anyone on the Bills. Johnson joined the Bills in 2018, and the two worked together every day for six years and built a relationship well beyond the building.
White was in Johnson’s wedding party. Johnson’s wife and White’s girlfriend are as close as the two teammates. So, it was actually Johnson’s wife, while he was working out, who alerted him that White signed and the two longtime Bills would be reuniting for another year in Buffalo.
“Having one of my best friends back, like, it’s great,” Johnson said with a smile. “I couldn’t ask for much more.”
“Just getting an opportunity to play ball again, but with guys that I really know, like Taron,” White said back in April. “It’s like close friends, it’s really close people that I really care about. And it’s not like a work relationship, it’s really a relationship outside of the field.”
It’s been a long few years for White, who, after a massively successful almost five-year run as the Bills’ top cornerback, had his football world turned upside down. In 2021, White suffered a season-ending torn ACL 11 games into the year. It took him a long time to rehab, get back to the field in 2022 and start feeling like himself again. With White looking more like himself to begin the 2023 season and ready to put the long-term injury fully behind him, he suffered a torn Achilles in just the fourth game of the year, another season-ending blow.
Tre’Davious White (27) is helped onto a cart by Bills medical staff after being injured against the Miami Dolphins in 2023. (Bryan M. Bennett / Getty Images)
It was very nearly his last time on the field as a member of the Bills.
The 2024 offseason, when the Bills had to slash future cap space, made White one of many high-profile cuts. White’s football journey eventually took him to Los Angeles on a one-year deal with the Rams. White was benched after only one month before being traded to the Ravens, with Baltimore only giving up a 2026 seventh-round pick and receiving a 2027 seventh-round pick along with White.
But in this case, that long road led right back to Buffalo. White signed a one-year deal in late April to return to his first and favored team.
“We met in my office I think the day he signed,” McDermott said. “While he was sitting across from me like you guys are, I did a couple, ‘Hey, this is a little bit surreal.'”
McDermott has been a fervent supporter of White throughout his career, and the two share a special relationship, as White was one of the key pieces to several successful seasons, holding the distinction of being McDermott’s first draft pick as an NFL head coach.
“It’s great to be reunited because of who he is, what he stands for, how hard he works,” McDermott continued. “I can’t say enough good things about Tre and what he means to me personally, and then what he’s meant to our football team.”
Johnson said seeing White back in the building sparks that same feeling.
“A little surreal. Because, you think when you leave this place, it’s probably done. You know what I’m saying? You’re not coming back,” Johnson said. “You know how much emotions he has with this place. So him leaving, and coming back, he was happy. He was happy because I know there’s nowhere else he’d rather play than here. This is his home.”
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6386124/2025/05/28/bills-otas-joey-bosa-cole-bishop/
Is this a redemption story for White? No. The Bills made it clear that they didn’t promise a starting job, and he’ll have fierce competition for that job after the team used its top draft choice in 2025 on cornerback Maxwell Hairston.
More than anything, it’s just White bringing his NFL story full circle. He always wanted to only play for one team throughout his career, and even though it hasn’t happened that way, he’s back where he feels most comfortable.
“I really gotta appreciate and really just sit back and just take it in and not try to think about the future or the past, just be in the moment, because you never know,” he said. “This time around, I feel like with the knowledge that I have now and just how life has worked out for me over these last few years, I just think the best thing for me to do is to stay in the moment and be present with what I have to do right now, because that’s all we’re promised.”
So, as White runs around the field, with every joke shared and competitive in-practice rep accomplished, he’s building those longstanding relationships even further. On top of that, he’s providing valuable expertise to a relatively young cornerback and defensive back room that may desperately need it during the year — even if he isn’t the one getting all or any of the playing time.
“This place is so, so special,” White said. “This is the only place that I really want to be and do it the right way, hopefully get a Super Bowl here and I’ll be a part of it.
“This is the right way. This is how it’s supposed to be for me.”
