The San Francisco 49ers started the trade deadline carousel early, swinging a deal with the New England Patriots for defensive lineman Keion White, swapping 2026 sixth and seventh-round picks in the process.
The 49ers needed defensive linemen after the season-ending injury to Nick Bosa, and that need was only exacerbated with the recent injuries to Bryce Huff (hamstring), Yetur Gross-Matos (hamstring), and Sam Okuayinonu (ankle).
They’d been actively interested in the trade market, with reports surfacing that San Francisco would be interested in several key names, including Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson. However, head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch acknowledged they didn’t want to sacrifice too much future capital for a move that only helps them in the present.
So, the move for White was made, giving the 49ers a young player who was a second-round pick in 2023 and had five sacks a season ago for the Patriots before falling out of the rotation under the new regime. What ultimately led the 49ers to pull the trigger?
“We need D-Linemen with all our guys injured,” head coach Kyle Shanahan said about the trade on Wednesday. “Regardless, he would have helped any team. I thought he was a problem when we played against him last year. Really liked what he does on film, too. He can play D-End and he can rush inside. So, versatile guy.”
That versatility seems to be big for the 49ers, who have put a value on bigger defensive ends that can move inside on passing downs. In fact, White, who stands around 285-290 pounds, was a more effective pass-rusher on the interior than on the edge in 2024 in terms of pressure rate.
Adding extra depth should help the 49ers with taking some of the workload off rookie Mykel Williams, who has been tasked with playing a large role immediately.
“I think Mykel’s just playing a lot of football. He’s doing stuff outside. He is doing stuff inside. I would love for us to be able to take some plays off of him,” Shanahan said. “We tried too hard last week. With all those guys going down, I think he still ended up getting 40. But, just going through this league and all the experience he is doing and fighting through some injuries and fighting through a lot of playing time, I think he’s growing a lot.”
“I think [the rookie class] has kind of exceeded expectations to tell you the truth. We knew we were going to throw them out there a lot, but we thought we’d have more other guys to help bring him along. Just losing some of those guys has been tough. I think Mykel’s hardest thing is that he missed training camp too with an injury. So, for him to battle throughout this whole year and missing training camp has been really impressive. Guys like Alfred got the whole training camp, so I think he was a little bit more prepared going into the season because he wasn’t hurt all of training camp. But, it’s been awesome for those guys to battle each week and be able to show up and play because it’d be really hard without them.”
San Francisco definitely needs bodies for this weekend’s contest against the New York Giants, as they also lost defensive end Trevis Gipson, who was signed off the practice squad to the Carolina Panthers active roster. As a result, the team signed Clelin Ferrell, who will likely be elevated for Sunday’s game off the practice squad.
White will have an early role for the 49ers, and that could continue to grow as a situational pass-rusher, hopefully giving the team more juice in an area where they’ve struggled this season.
