Niners Nation
Now that we’re full-on into the playoffs, it’s time to stop looking in the rearview with our Secret Superstars series, and start looking forward to the next game with Postseason X-Factors. The principle is the same — using game tape and metrics to uncover those hidden gems for every team who are primed to bring their best when their franchises need it the most.
The San Francisco 49ers have at least 10 different hidden gems you could mention in a season where so much has gone wrong in an injury sense, and nearly everything has come up roses in a coaching sense. For now, let’s focus on defensive lineman Keion White, whose October trade from Foxboro to the Bay Area has made an impressive difference at all the right times.
That Kyle Shanahan should be the NFL’s Coach of the Year, and Robert Saleh should be the Assistant Coach of the Year, based on what they’ve done with all the injuries they’ve had to deal with this season — well, that’s as much of a no-brainer as you’ll ever see in the NFL. But that kind of great coaching isn’t just about making the most of the players you have; you also need to go out and find credible replacements for the stars you don’t have anymore.
For the 2025 49ers, case in point was the late October trade with the New England Patriots for the services of defensive lineman Keion White. Selected by New England in the second round of the 2023 draft out of Georgia Tech, White was one of my favorite defensive linemen in his class, as he showed a ton of disruptive ability from multiple gaps. And I assumed that under head coach Mike Vrabel and defensive coordinator Terrell Williams, White would uncover his NFL potential in ways he didn’t in his first two NFL seasons.
It didn’t happen. The Patriots’ new regime utilized the 6’5”, 290-pound White primarily as an edge-rusher, when he’s better terrorizing ballplayers from every gap. Saleh must have been licking his chops when it was discovered that White was available.
“Everyone’s a little bit different,” Saleh said of White after the trade happened. “With Keion, it reminds me of someone like [New York Jets linebacker] Quincy Williams, who we had at the Jets. He was drafted in the third round by the Jaguars, didn’t quite work out, cut after the second year. We get our hands on him and he’s an All-Pro linebacker, which [is a] credit to him and the work he put in. So, sometimes it just takes being in the right situation with the right staff.
“It’s not one staff being better than the other, it’s just a matter of just that connection. So, with Keion being in this situation, we feel great about his skillset. We know exactly what that skill set looks like and how it fits for us and what we do. I know he’s excited about it and I think with everyone being so...
