Tre’Davious White placed on PUP List

Tre’Davious White tore his ACL on Thanksgiving in 2021. He underwent surgery to reconstruct his ACL and correct a meniscal tear three weeks later, on December 15th. Currently, Tre is approaching nine months post-operation, but has been placed on the Reserve/PUP list when the Bills cut down to their 53-man roster. The rules have changed for the PUP list this year, so this may help provide insight into when we should expect to see Tre back on the field.

Prior to this season, the PUP list would require a player to remain out for the first six weeks of the season. Fortunately, the rules now only require a player to miss the first four weeks. Players cannot practice during this period, but they can attend all team meetings and continue to rehab/train. Once that time has elapsed, players need to be activated within five weeks, or they will be required to go to season-ending IR or be released. A player on the PUP list can begin practicing after the four-week rest period. Teams will get a 21-day grace period of practice before they need to decide to activate the player or place on season-ending IR. This leaves the Bills with some flexible dates when Tre can return to the field.

Aggressive Approach

This is a very unlikely scenario. Brandon Beane mentioned Tre will need some practice time to ramp up. However, theoretically speaking, Tre can be activated and play as early as Week 5, which would be October 9^th vs. the Steelers.

Intermediate Approach

The Bills have Tre start practicing as soon as the four-week rest period lapses. At this time, he will have a 21-day window of practice time before the team has to activate him to the 53-man roster. In other words, he basically can practice with the team without counting towards the roster count, like a practice squad player.

This is where the team can be flexible on their decision making. They can have Tre’Davious White practice for one week and return Week 6 vs. the Chiefs (October 19^th). If they keep him in his practice window after Week 6, they head into their bye week and then he could return at the tail end of the 21-day grace period for Week 8 vs. the Packers on SNF in Buffalo (October 30^th).

Conservative Approach

Possibly the team wants to maximize the rest period. In this scenario, they could delay his 21-day practice grace period for two weeks post four-week required PUP rest time. This would start his practice window after the Chiefs game. Again, they would collide with the Bye Week initially, and then he would also sit out Week 8 and Week 9. This scenario would have him returning to play in Week 10 vs. the Vikings (November 13^th). 

Conclusion

Tre’Davious White displayed his progress in late July at training camp. To a trained eye, it was evident he still had several hurdles to clear. He lacked full flexion of his knee when running (as seen below), and he also displayed hesitation landing on his affected leg during single leg jumping.

Once Tre cleans up those deficiencies, he still needs to ramp up his conditioning and acclimate back to padded practice/mental hurdles. If I were to guess, the team will bring him back to practice right after Week 4, utilize the whole 21-day practice grace period and activate him for SNF against the Packers in Week 8 in front of the home crowd. This would mark 10.5 months post-surgery, which aligns with the 10.8 month average for NFL players.

Featured Image: AP Photo/Adrian Kraus