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Stop us if you've heard this before: The New England Patriots have given up on a recent second-round draft pick. The Patriots reportedly traded defensive end and 2023 second-round pick Keion White to the 49ers on Tuesday night, sending a conditional 2026 seventh-round pick to San Francisco in exchange for the team's 2026 sixth-round pick. Given New England's brutal track record with second-round picks and White's slide down the depth chart in Foxboro, his trade isn't surprising. But Patriots Insider Phil Perry still was surprised to see Mike Vrabel's team get just a sixth-round pick in return for a physically gifted edge rusher who still has another year on his contract. "I'm blown away by the return," Perry said Tuesday night on Early Edition. "A pick swap for very late-round picks for a guy who was a second-rounder with that kind of physical skill set? I wasn't expecting a whole lot, but it just shows you how the league views him now." MORE PATRIOTS COVERAGE How the league (and the Patriots) view White now is very different than when he entered the league in 2023. The 6-foot-5, 285-pound defensive end boasts impressive speed and power for a player of his size, and Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer noted that then-head coach Bill Belichick was prepared to take White in the first round of the 2023 draft before being talked out of it. "Somebody with an unbelievable physical skill set," Perry added of White. "And that's not just me assessing him; that's guys that have played, that is people in front offices across the league. "I mean, he is built like a superhero. There was tape of him coming out of Georgia Tech where he was running with running backs who run 4.4 (-second) 40 (-yard dashes) down the sideline on wheel routes, and this guy weighs 285 pounds." As Perry pointed out, however, White's physical traits only got him so far. "He is a rare physical specimen, but this is an example of, you need a little bit more than just the physical stuff to be able to put it all together," Perry said. "He really hasn't, in terms of his polish and his pass rush moves -- he hasn't been able to put it together." White's peak with the Patriots came early in the 2024 season, when he racked up four sacks in the team's first two games under first-year head coach Jerod Mayo. He recorded just one sack over the next 15 games, however, and grew disgruntled with his role while publicly calling out Mayo and the coaching staff on several occasions. In 2025, new head coach Mike Vrabel and defensive coordinator Terrell Williams installed a new defensive system that resulted in White being buried on the depth chart; he played just 26 percent of the team's defensive snaps and was a healthy scratch last Sunday against the Cleveland Browns. By trading White for such a paltry return, the Patriots signaled that their priority was moving on from the third-year pro, instead of playing hardball to maximize his return. "To give up on him for that (price) means you've kind of made a final decision on him," Breer added. Watch the video below for more reaction from Perry, Breer and host Trenni Casey.
