There’s only one way to read the situation involving Patriots defensive end Keion White: He’s fallen down the depth chart.
“I know that he’s been surpassed on the depth chart,” Patriots insider Phil Perry said on the Patriots Talk podcast after New England’s preseason finale.
White played 30 snaps in that preseason finale against the New York Giants. While fellow veteran pass-rushers Harold Landry III and K’Lavon Chaisson stood on the sidelines in street clothes, White was in a helmet and shoulder pads. It was the most glaring indication that he’s slid in the positional pecking order behind Chaisson, who is now receiving the first-team snaps White did earlier in training camp.
Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel downplayed the change, however.
“Well, there’ll be a rotation,” Vrabel responded when asked what White has to do to get back with the first-team defense. “We’re going to play a lot of guys on defense.
“I’ve had plenty of conversations with Keion and love how he works and love how he competes,” Vrabel said of White, who started 13 games in 2024. “So, we’re going to need him. We’re going to need all three of them, four of them, five of them, however many guys can help us on the edge and affect the quarterback. I think when everything is said and done, the snaps are going to be pretty even and equal.”
That might be true. But the reality is the 6-foot-5, 285-pound specimen started the summer with the first-team defense and lately it’s been Chaisson. A first-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, Chaisson signed a one-year deal with the Patriots this offseason. Chaisson projects as more of a twitchy pass-rusher than the big-bodied White, who typically tries to run through offensive linemen to varying degrees of success, as Perry noted.
There were high expectations for White entering the season. Many believed the combination of Vrabel and defensive coordinator Terrell Williams could bring the best out of White, who publicly expressed disappointment in the lack of coaching he received last offseason.
However, to this point, White seems to be trending in the opposite direction. Perry even labeled White the “biggest disappointment” while revealing his Patriots training camp superlatives.
