Patriots coach Bill Belichick, who is not given to touting untested players, sounded impressed by White's start.
"It's been good working with James White," Belichick told SiriusXM's NFL Radio. "He's a very interesting and versatile player. He does a good job in the passing game and in the running game, both inside and outside, blitz pickup.
"We have a pretty extensive offense for him to learn and he's working hard at it. We'll just let him go and see how it goes. But I think he has the ability to compete on all three downs, in both the running game and the passing game."
Writer Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com put White first on his list of early winners in all NFL training camps this summer.
"No rookie in the league has had a more steadily growing drumbeat than the fourth-round rookie out of Wisconsin," Rosenthal said. "Teammates, coaches and media alike have raved about White's three-down potential. White has seen a lot of short-yardage work, and there are questions about whether White could cut into Stevan Ridley'searly yardage work."