After going undrafted, White signed a free agent deal with Seattle and took part in the Seahawks rookie camp the weekend of May 4-6.
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Then the Seahawks cut him.
“I don’t know what happened,” White said Saturday morning prior to his second practice with the Bengals.
“I was surprised they cut me,” he added. “I was doing everything I had to do out there and making some plays, but they just called and said they were releasing me.”
›› RedHawks receiver a late addition to Bengals rookie camp
Rather than waiting to see if White would clear waivers, the Bengals put in a claim and were awarded the 6-foot-1, 199 pounder Tuesday. And by Friday he was making plays all over the field, including an over-the-shoulder grab on a deep ball from seventh-round quarterback Logan Woodside.
“He was making me look good,” Woodside said with a nod toward White two lockers down.
White had 61 catches for 1,004 yards and 12 touchdowns last season at West Virginia, where his older brothers Kevin and Kyzir also played.
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Kevin, a wide receiver for the Chicago Bears, was a first-round pick (seventh overall) in 2015, while Kyzir, a safety, was a fourth-round pick of the San Diego Chargers last month.
While Ka’Raun and Kyzir followed Kevin to West Viginia, they didn’t exactly follow his path.
Ka’Raun, who couldn’t even get on the field his senior at Emmaus (Pa.) High School, and Kyzir went to Lackawanna Junior College for two years before transferring to WVU.
›› Woodside’s boyhood dream of playing for Bengals off to positive start
“Coming out of high school I was just trying to go anywhere to play,” Ka’Raun said. “I would’ve walked on at a D2 or D3 school, but GPA didn’t allow me to qualify. I redshirted my first year (at Lackawanna) then played the next year and got an offer from West Virginia.”
In this third season with the Mountaineers last fall, Ka’Raun earned All-Big 12 honorable mention, while Kyzir was voted second team all-league.
“I’ve worked hard for things my whole life,” Ka’Raun said. “When you do that, you eventually get your shot. That’s what I’m going to do here, just keep working.”
Plays from the past: When you throw 46 rookies together in one locker room for a weekend camp, there are bound to be some stories from their college days, especially when two players from the same conference end up with lockers right to each other.
That was the case for Florida State wide receiver Auden Tate, a seventh-round pick, and Wake Forest safety Jessie Bates, a second rounder.
“I caught the game-winning touchdown on them this year,” Tate said, referring to a 40-yard score with 53 seconds left in a 26-19 triumph at Wake on Sept. 30.
“(Bates) was on the tight end, so I can’t fully brag about it,” Tate added. “But I still kind of give it to him.”
Bates said he remembers a different play from that game
“He got me with a blind-side block,” he said. “We were joking about that. I’m going to get him.”
Bates also will have another chance to “get” Logan Woodside, another seventh-rounder. Woodside was the quarterback at Toledo when Bates committed there before reversing course when a late offer arrived from Wake Forest.
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