Kevin White left a legacy with the WVU football team. He played two years for the Mountaineers and developed into one of the best deep threats in the country.
When the Chicago Bears drafted Kevin White with the seventh overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft, they expected him to come into Soldier Field right away and be a top target in their offense.
That didn’t happen in 2015. Or in 2016. And, it looks like it won’t be happening in 2017 either. In the Bears’ Week 1 loss to the Atlanta Falcons, White went down with an injured neck.
The past two seasons, White had lower body injuries with his ankle and fibula acting up. This year, his ailment is a broken collarbone. It appears that White will miss yet another NFL season while he deals with these injuries.
The fear in Chicago is that WR Kevin White broke his collarbone and will require season-ending surgery, per... https://t.co/ouo3jKttyD
— Dan Graziano (@DanGrazianoESPN) September 10, 2017
"And Kevin White is hurt..." rinse and repeat.
— Danny Parkins (@DannyParkins) September 10, 2017
If Kevin White is out for the season he will have played 5 games in 3 seasons while making $13.734 million.
— Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) September 10, 2017
Kevin White did have two catches against the Falcons on Sunday. They went for a total of six yards before he went down with the injury. This is not what was expected when White was coming out of college.
Under head coach Dana Holgorsen, White was one of the most hyped prospects coming out of the 2015 draft. He was one of the top-rated WVU football products in history, too.
To call him a bust is spot on, unfortunately. He has failed to live up to expectations, but it’s not like Kevin White even had an opportunity to set expectations at the professional level.
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In college, Kevin White played in 24 games. He left West Virginia with nearly 2,000 receiving yards in just two years after transferring in from Lackawanna Community College. White had 15 touchdowns, including 10 in his senior year where his draft stock was rising sharply.
After missing the entire 2015 season, White played in just four games last season and he did not record a touchdown at the professional level. By this time, with all that was invested in White by the Bears, they probably expected him to be a candidate for the Most Valuable Player award.
Instead, White’s time to shine will have to wait another year. As hard as this is on Bears fans, it’s even harder on White, himself. He has the makeup to succeed at the top level, he just hasn’t had the right opportunity.
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After another season on the bench, hope will still remain that Kevin White can enter and exit the full 2018 season unscathed.