With the trade deadline steadily approaching, the New England Patriots made one of their first moves on Tuesday.
According to the NFL’s Tom Pelissero, the Patriots reached an agreement on a trade with the 49ers for defensive end Keion White.
Pelissero reports that New England will send White and their 2026 7th-round selection to San Francisco in exchange for the 49ers’ 2026 6th-round pick.
The former 2023 second-rounder heads to a San Francisco 49ers team that needs all the help it can get after they’ve been dealing with injuries for a good portion of the season. It also gets White out of the conference, and removes someone who has certainly been interesting since he’s gotten here.
White was a player who showed some promise in his rookie year under former head coach Bill Belichick, but seemed to take a step back in 2023 under Jerod Mayo.
The third-year defensive tackle made comments alluding to the fact that he may have had some frustration with his development., After his regression last year where he finished with five sacks but was incredibly inconsistent, White seemed to feel like he attributed it to Mayo’s coaching.
After Mike Vrabel was hired earlier this offseason, the two seemed to be in an interesting spot where it seemed like White was auditioning Vrabel and not the other way around. Vrabel talked about White earlier this year and alluded to the fact that their relationship was pretty business-like.
“I mean, Keion, there’s not a lot of fluff to him,” said Vrabel. “Our conversations are mostly… He wants to know football. He wants to talk football. That’s his profession. That’s his career. That’s his passion. So, we talk a lot of football, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know him.”
White ended up raising more than a few eyebrows with his comments during the summer. Given how his first two seasons went, White appeared to attribute it less to himself and more to the coaching staff.
As a result, he appeared to be in a wait-and-see type of situation with the new coaching staff, and his biggest focus is on whether or not Vrabel and his coaches could continue to help him grow as a player.
“Yeah. I mean, my biggest working relationship is whether we’re winning or losing,” said White. “So that’s big for me. And then you just go from there. So is he a good coach? And how can he make me better? And that’s the biggest relationship I have. Everything else will take care of itself, later down the road.”
White was asked by the media about his thoughts on Vrabel, with White being pretty conservative in his answer.
“I think he’s a pretty good coach,” said White.
When asked, why he felt that way, White responded, “Because he helps me get better.” He was also asked about Vrabel’s ‘there’s not a lot of fluff’ comments, and what the two have talked about in those conversations.
“Technique and how to get better, for real,” said White. “Just what do I need to do on the field? What does he see? What do I see? And how to improve on that.”
However, he doesn’t seem like he’s taken the next step. While there haven’t been any real reports of issues, White’s playing time has fluctuated all season, and he was a healthy scratch this past weekend.
For now, it appears a change of scenery seems to be what the two sides felt was best. As Vrabel continues trying to build a culture in the locker room, if White was indeed an issue, the move makes sense.
Unfortunately, he also becomes a player who, as a former second-round pick, showed promise but instead he’ll now be added to the list of some frustrating swings-and-misses by the club in recent years with players in round two.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
