Keion
White.
Keion
White.
Georgia Tech· 6'5"· 285 lb
"White is the strongest man on the field in most one-on-ones and the fastest to the quarterback in a straight line, but the counters he never learned are the reason he rushes on a rotation instead of a snap count."Pre-draft read
White is a 6-foot-5, 285-pound base end built to play on the tackle's outside shoulder in an odd front, and his identity is leverage-through-power. He fires off with heavy hands, snatches half a man, and walks blockers into the pocket rather than running arcs around them; the long-arm and the two-hand swipe are his money moves.
The second trait is rare short-area burst for the mass. A converted tight end, he closes on quarterbacks with a change of direction most 285-pounders do not own, and he can slide inside on passing downs to hunt a guard. Against the run he squeezes and constricts; against the pass he wins early or leans. The signature is being a true five-technique on first down and an interior rusher on third.
Odd-front, two-gap-capable defense that asks its ends to control blocks on early downs and slides them inside on obvious passing downs — a 3-4 base or a multiple front with heavy sub-package usage.
Year 1: rotational base end who plays the run on first and second down and kicks inside on third. Ceiling: every-down interior-flex rusher who racks up pressures from a reduced alignment.
A wide-9 speed-rush front that asks him to win the corner from a two-point stance in space — he flattens instead of bending and would be exposed as a pure edge-setter with no arc.
His pressure production rises whenever he plays over a guard; the more a defense treats him as a big interior rusher rather than an edge, the more his strength shows up on the stat sheet.
Keion White 2022 Regular Season Highlights | Georgia Tech DL
Georgia Tech Keion White DE Ultimate Highlights 2022
Keion White 2022 Georgia Tech Highlights 🐝 || HD
White is the rare Day 2 defensive lineman who arrived at the position late and still looked like a finished power player. He began at Old Dominion as a tight end, moved to defensive end as a redshirt sophomore, and immediately produced 19 tackles for loss — a program single-season record share — before the 2020 shutdown pushed him to Georgia Tech.
The Georgia Tech chapter was uneven and then loud. Injury limited him to four games and four tackles in 2021, and 2022 was the tape that carried the evaluation: 12 games, 54 tackles, 14.0 for loss and 7.5 sacks on a bad defense that offered him no help. He is the strongest man in most one-on-ones, he does not get displaced, and he can shift inside without losing anything. The flags were the age curve for a player with so few reps at the spot, a pass-rush plan that lived on power before it lived on counters, and a combine where he declined to run.
Boards had him as a clean second-round grade with first-round buzz. New England taking him 46th overall was on consensus, and it was a bet that an old rookie with young position age would keep compounding.
- 01
Play strength
Rolls his hips into contact and reduces blockers on contact; he is almost never moved off his spot in the run game.
- 02
Hand violence
The long-arm and two-hand swipe show real timing and grip strength, and he separates cleanly once he locks a half-man.
- 03
Burst for the mass
Short-area quickness and closing speed you rarely see at 285 pounds, especially on the inside stunt or the T-E game.
- 04
Alignment flex
Legitimate five-technique on early downs and a disruptive interior rusher on passing downs without changing his style.
- 05
Position youth
A converted tight end with only three seasons on the defensive line, so the technical ceiling is still meaningfully open.
- 01
Rush plan
Wins first with power and does not have a reliable second or third move when the tackle absorbs the initial bull.
- 02
Bend
A tall, upright rusher who flattens more than he corners; the arc pressures turn into late pressures against real NFL tackles.
- 03
Testing gaps
Declined the 40 and the agility drills at the combine, leaving the athletic profile partly projected rather than measured.
- 04
Draft age
Turned 24 as a rookie, so the developmental runway is shorter than the raw rep count would otherwise suggest.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- —s
- Vertical
- 34inp50
- Broad jump
- 117inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 30repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Old Dominion | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | Old Dominion | 12 | 62 | 3.5 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2021 | Georgia Tech | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | Georgia Tech | 12 | 54 | 7.5 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Career | — | 36 | 120 | 11 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
Tight end at Old Dominion in 2018; converted to defensive end in 2019. Did not play in 2020 (ODU cancelled season) before transferring to Georgia Tech. cfbstats.com does not archive 2018-2019, and its Georgia Tech pages publish no sack table for 2021 and no INT/FR categories at all — those fields are left null rather than zero-filled.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Rotational base end who holds up against the run and gives you spot pressure from a reduced alignment.
The power-first five-technique outcome, if the counters had ever arrived and the play strength kept translating every down.
A body who plays the run honestly, cycles teams as a depth piece and never converts the athletic flashes into sacks.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Rotational defensive end for New England from 2023-25 (38 games, 18 starts, career-best 5.0 sacks in 2024) before an October 2025 trade to San Francisco, where the 49ers moved him inside as an interior rusher. Enters 2026 with the 49ers.
New England used him exactly as advertised and then slowly enlarged the role. He was a rotational end as a rookie in 2023 — 16 games, three starts, 26 tackles and a lone sack — and the 2024 season was the step forward the Patriots wanted: 5.0 sacks, 56 total tackles and a real snap share on an otherwise thin front. Then the fit soured. A defensive coordinator change and a crowded room cut his 2025 usage to five games and five tackles, and in late October 2025 New England shipped him to San Francisco in a sixth-for-seventh pick swap. The 49ers, thin on the defensive line, immediately moved him inside and used him more as a three-technique than an edge; the pressure numbers ticked up, he added 1.5 sacks down the stretch plus a playoff sack, and he opens 2026 in San Francisco.
In hindsight the pick is neither a miss nor a win — it is a player who is exactly what the tape said and no more. The power is real, the run defense is real, and the counters never came, which caps him as a good rotational piece instead of a double-digit-sack starter. New England did not do anything wrong at 46; the mistake was expecting a late convert to grow a pass-rush plan on an NFL schedule. San Francisco may have found the honest answer by moving him inside, where his strength matters more than his bend.
Data note: Tight end at Old Dominion in 2018; converted to defensive end in 2019. Did not play in 2020 (ODU cancelled season) before transferring to Georgia Tech. cfbstats.com does not archive 2018-2019, and its Georgia Tech pages publish no sack table for 2021 and no INT/FR categories at all — those fields are left null rather than zero-filled.