With Nick Bosa out for the year with a torn ACL, and Bryce Huff and Yetur Gross-Matos nursing injuries of their own, the San Francisco 49ers were clearly going to be buyers in the pass-rush department ahead of next week's trade deadline.
And while they didn't bring in one of the more high-profile names Niners fans may have wanted, they still added a solid player on Tuesday in a low-risk, high-reward kind of a deal with the New England Patriots, acquiring third-year edge rusher Keion White and a 2026 conditional seventh-round pick while sending just a 2026 sixth-round selection back to Foxborough.
Nobody is ever going to mistake White for Bosa, but the fact then-head coach Bill Belichick, who obviously had one of the best defensive minds the NFL has ever seen, made him a second-round draft pick of the Pats in 2023 undoubtedly speaks to his potential. But while White may have fallen out of favor with New England's new head coach, Mike Vrabel, that doesn't mean that potential has faded, and he seems like the type of player San Francisco defensive coordinator Robert Saleh should love.
For one, Saleh likes players who play a physical kind of football. As White is 6-foot-5 and 285 pounds, that's not a problem. Saleh also likes players who are versatile, and White has that as well, as he can play both on the edge and on the interior at defensive tackle, which is a massive bonus for San Francisco right now. He could be a little more disciplined at times, but Saleh certainly won't let that be an issue for long.
After a solid enough rookie campaign under Belichick in 2023, one in which he amassed 26 total tackles, three tackles for loss, five QB hits, and a sack, White took a massive leap forward in 2024 under Jerod Mayo, tying for the team lead in sacks with 5.0, while easily leading the team in total pressures with 45, which were 14 more than second-place Anfernee Jennings.
The Georgia Tech product did fade a bit down the stretch, but as ESPN's Ben Solak recently pointed out, White was tough to handle during the first half of the season.
"He started last season real hot," Solak wrote. "In the first half of the year, he was 11th among all defensive linemen in pressure rate and 16th in pass rush win rate. He was especially nasty on the interior, ranking 11th in pass rush win rate when lined up as a defensive tackle."
That's an example of that potential we mentioned.
White just didn't seem to fit in with how Vrabel wanted to do things in New England, which is obviously why the Pats had no problem trading him. But a new start can do wonders for players. And given how Saleh has made a habit of taking castoffs and making them better defenders throughout his career, this seems like a great opportunity for everyone involved.