Can Patriots second-round pick continue necessary development in NFL?
The New England Patriots selected an older prospect in the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft, but there's still plenty of room for edge defender Keion White to continue to progress in the NFL. The Patriots selected White with the 47th overall pick last month. The former Georgia Tech defensive lineman started his career […]
The New England Patriots selected an older prospect in the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft, but there's still plenty of room for edge defender Keion White to continue to progress in the NFL.
The Patriots selected White with the 47th overall pick last month. The former Georgia Tech defensive lineman started his career at Old Dominion as a two-star TE prospect before converting to the defensive line. White redshirted his freshman year before catching 11 passes for 124 yards in 2018. White made the transition to play defensive line before the 2019 season.
White's versatility is not new. White played center in high school before converting to defensive line and tight end his senior year. It came full circle with White becoming a full-time defensive lineman in the 2019 offseason. His development was stunted a bit by an ankle injury he suffered before the start of that year, forcing him to be sidelined for the first eight games of the season.
The delay for White continued as the COVID-19 pandemic sidelined White for another season. Entering 2021, White had two seasons of eligibility left. He's still raw as a defensive lineman with just 1,290 snaps played along the defensive line. White played all over the defensive line throughout his time in college, but his build and skill set translate to a 5-tech with 4/4i-tech versatility at the NFL level.
White does a good job of controlling offensive linemen in the run game and getting to the ball carrier. White is quick to diagnose the run, get horizontal and use his upper-body strength and rangy athleticism to disrupt this play.
In the clip below, White flashes good gap integrity and has a nose for seeing holes and closing them. His powerful arms seem to often find a way to shoot out of blocks and get around a ball carrier stunting their forward progress. White does a good job of widening his base and not allowing the offensive lineman to get leverage on him in the run game.
White is powerful, can generate power throughout his entire frame, and his leg drive is a nightmare for offensive linemen. Again, White flashes the ability to quickly diagnose where the ball carrier is going and get there. White understands how to attack leverage and get to the inside shoulder of offensive linemen, making it hard for them to get their hands inside his chest.
As a pass rusher, White is still raw. Offensive linemen who succeeded against White were usually strong in their own right with a strong anchor and the ability to quickly land their punch. The biggest strength to his pass-rush approach currently is his power. When he gets his 34-inch arms into the chest of an offensive lineman, he can push them back and wreck plays. If White gets leverage, it is almost always a bad rep for the offensive lineman. It is hard for offensive linemen to recover and reset against White's bull rush.
As a day-one player, White is a better run defender than a pass rusher. White possesses the physical traits to be a high-end pass rusher, but he needs to develop his pass-rushing "bag". When watching White's film, it feels as if he relies on his strength and attempts nearly every pass rush relying on power with an occasional spin sprinkled in.
There is not much hand usage in White's game. In his film, you rarely ever see effective "rip", "swim", "chop", etc. moves. White is a bit of a project with high-end athleticism but needs to study the nuances of the more advanced pass-rushers in the NFL to be elite at the next level. The biggest challenge Keion White will face is that he is already 24 years old. The good news is that Keion White should, theoretically, only improve as he is relatively new to the position.
