Philadelphia Eagles: As it turns out, Kyzir White bleeds midnight green

*exhale* the Philadelphia Eagles have three professional linebackers under contract with three more promising reserves on rookie-scale contracts: Life is good.

As you probably know, on an otherwise unsuspecting Saturday afternoon, Howie Roseman came to terms with now-former Los Angeles Chargers linebacker Kyzir White to serve as the team’s presumptive weakside linebacker for the 2022 NFL season. His contract, which runs for one year, could be worth up to $5 million according to Ian Rapoport if all of the incentives are met and presents the first time the Eagles have invested that much money in linebacker since 2020, when already-released Nigel Bradham had a dead cap hit of $5.3 million.

Sidebar: That fact would be pretty fun if it wasn’t so sad.

If all White brought to the table was a resume headlined by a really good season 2021 season under Brandon Staley, I think most fans would be overjoyed by his addition. While the Eagles’ most recent linebacking corps did have a few bright spots, most notably T.J. Edwards, a quarter season of Davion Taylor, and Shaun Bradley – on special teams – the grouping was one of the team’s biggest weaknesses and needed a serious overhaul to take the defense up a notch moving forward, which White – and Haason Reddick – should help to do.

But did you know that Kyzir White isn’t just a wonderful NFL linebacker with great coverage skills, good instincts, and a pension for picking up tackles but an OG Philadelphia Eagles fan who was in attendance at the infamous “Blizzard Game” versus the Detroit Lions back in 2013? Oh yeah, White’s about to become a fan favorite real quick.

Kyzir White is as happy to join the Philadelphia Eagles as fans are to have him.

Kyzir White is a native of Plainfield, New Jersey. He played his high school ball at Emmaus High School just outside of Allentown, put in some really good tape at Lackawanna College in Scranton, and, after being named the top JUCO safety in the nation, transferred to his brother Kevin’s alma mater, West Virginia, where he parlayed two fantastic seasons into a fourth-round draft selection by the Los Angeles Chargers.

After spending four years in the template weather, picturesque vistas, and In-N-Out Burger-filled wonderland known as Los Angeles, surely White would’ve outgrown the winters, the snow, and the seasonal depression of living in a “cold-weather city,” right? Well, apparently not, as White appears hyped to put his home-ish town team’s name on his back and prove that 2021 was just the start of something bigger, not a statistical aberration.

https://twitter.com/KyzirWhite8/status/1507814568956858368?s=20&t=5H-v5yghxZi_Z-pCpJtIsw

Now I know what non-Philly fans are probably thinking, “the Eagles can only get free agents with ties to the area; no one wants to play for them otherwise.” That’s the criticism some – see New York Giants fans – levied at the Eagles when they signed Haason Reddick away from his college coach, and one they will surely spout again once it becomes common knowledge that White has local roots too. But do you know what? I’d rather have White stoked out of his mind to choose Philly over other options than have a hole on the depth chart heading into the draft with no guarantee that Howie Roseman will draft a linebacker at 15, 16, or 19.

If that’s all White brings to the table, well, then that’s a whole heck of a lot if you ask me.

Fans love it when a local product makes good. Watching a player go from high school to college, and then the pros breeds a different kind of fandom that produces a sort of loyalty that exists outside of what team they play for. But when one of those players comes home and puts in work for the team they grew up rooting for? Well, that, my friends, is how legends are born. If Kyzir White can turn in another season like 2021 and parlay it into a long-term deal, then he might just go down as a defining player of this era of Philadelphia Eagles football right up there with his new teammate and fellow Jersey boy, Haason Reddick.