New England Patriots - NESN.com
Keion White took the high road during his first media availability since being traded to the 49ers, but the third-year defensive end clearly doesn’t love how things ended in New England.
Earlier this week, the Patriots traded White and a seventh-round pick to San Francisco for a sixth-round pick. The deal mirrored the same-day trade that saw safety Kyle Dugger and a seventh-round pick shipped to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a seventh-rounder. All picks are for the 2026 NFL Draft.
White showed flashes of potential as a second-round rookie in 2023 and arguably was New England’s best defensive player in 2024. However, both those seasons were played within a similar defensive scheme, one created by Bill Belichick, and Mike Vrabel’s scheme proved less conducive to White’s skill set. As a result, White saw his role diminish throughout training camp and plummet further over the first eight weeks of the regular season, including a healthy scratch last Sunday.
While speaking with 49ers reporters on Thursday, White acknowledged being frustrated by his decrease in playing time with the Patriots.
“As a competitor, you always want to play as much as possible,” White said. “If it was up to me, I’d be on the field all 80 snaps, so it’s always going to be frustrating not being out there. But you also got to understand that everything fits inside the scheme. And so, I was just trying to play my role.”
White added: “Rushing from the inside, that’s kind of what I feel like I do best,” White said. “No knock to the guys over there — they had a system where I was outside. I could have been better on the outside rushing and everything like that, and just roll with what I could have done better.”
White also said that his time with Belichick prepared him for the uncertainty that lies ahead.
“I kind of just roll with the punches,” he said. “Just one thing that being under Bill for a year taught you was you just take every day for what it is, and you never really expect anything from tomorrow. So, I just go one day at a time and go where I’m supposed to be at.”
White has the size, athleticism and work ethic to be a productive pass rusher in the NFL. But it just wasn’t working in New England, and now he has a chance to resurrect his career on the West Coast.
