Under New Patriots Coaches, Keion White Can See The Destination

There’s little wasted movement in Keion White’s style of football.

The New England Patriots defensive lineman plays with a sudden, striking and straightforward purpose to get where he wants to go. And under his third coaching staff in as many years, that mindset is getting closer to the destination.

“Aggressiveness. Attack,” White told reporters as mandatory minicamp concluded on Tuesday. “Just dominate the person across from you. Really set the tone, establish your dominance and impose your will on the man across from you. That’s my message. I don’t really talk a lot, so I usually lead by example. And I don’t really like to get into the leader word or role or say that, because we all are grown men at the end of the day. But it’s more so just, do your work.”

Since landing in Foxborough as the No. 46 overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft, the product of Old Dominion and Georgia Tech has only known 4-13 seasons. The tenure began with Bill Belichick as head coach. It continued with Jerod Mayo as head coach. And now, there’s Mike Vrabel.

The Patriots Hall of Fame linebacker’s honest, hands-on approach left a mark on an honest, hands-on player during the offseason program at Gillette Stadium.

“Vrabel’s cool,” White said. “He’s a hard-ass. He’s one of those guys that’s not afraid to get his hands dirty. He’ll come out, put the pads on, let you go through the defensive line drills with him. So, if you got a guy at the top ready to get in the trenches with you, that makes you respect him a little bit more.”

White, at age 26, stands 33 games and 17 starts into his NFL career. The 6-foot-5, 285-pound offensive convert has been around long enough to know when it’s not good enough. Last season brought 56 tackles and 16 quarterback hits to go with two forced fumbles and five batted passes. And on a defense that regressed to rank last around the league in sacks, he tied ex-captain Deatrich Wise Jr. for the team lead with five.

A fair share of his 829 defensive snaps arrived on the interior line. With four-year, $104 million signing Milton Williams joining a healthy Christian Barmore at defensive tackle, more opportunities off the edges of coordinator Terrell Williams’ four-man fronts loom.

“Just consistency and just having confidence,” White said of his rush moves. “I feel like we have really good guys on the inside who can get after the passer, even on early-down situations. That changes things that I can do a little bit. I can be a little bit less conservative and be more aggressive on the edge. It changes a lot of things.”

And with outside linebackers coach Mike Smith, a former Baltimore Ravens draft choice, explaining the how and the why behind techniques, White believes he is in position to make the most of those changes.

There’s less figuring it out on his own entering 2025.

“And also, I have a really good coach helping me,” White added. “Coach Smith was telling me steps, alignment, things like that I haven’t traditionally heard. So like, just that next step of having that coach behind me is really big for me.

“It’s helpful for me, because it slows it down for me a little bit and it trains me. Like, he’s doing a good job of saying, ‘This is what you need to think of; this is your thought process,’ and that’s something I don’t think I had before and what I was missing.”