Chris Mason: Patriots rookie’s growth a silver lining

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Keion White’s raw power has always been obvious.

From his first training camp one-on-one drills, White’s bull rush was eye-catching, but he was certainly raw as well. And that’s why as the Patriots play out a string of games that are wholly meaningless in the standings, they’re still very meaningful to rookies like White.

“(White) gets better every week,” Bill Belichick said.

At Highmark Stadium on Sunday afternoon, White delivered one of the best performances of his young career. The box score will tell you that he had a pair of pressures, a tackle for loss, and hit Josh Allen once, but the defensive tackle’s game was even more impressive when watching it on a snap-by-snap basis. The second-round pick out of Georgia Tech is beginning to refine his game in a way that felt far away during the dog days of training camp.

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In a conversation with MassLive at his stall in the visitor’s locker room, White said the reason for emergence has been simple.

“The experience,” White said. “Just getting the reps, and in a way, (expletive)-ing it up. So by me failing, I can succeed in the future. I just take all those failures as a blessing, for sure… The name of the game is improvement. So just trying to learn from the mistakes and improve week to week and not make the same mistake twice.”

His teammates and coaches have seen that improvement behind the scenes and aren’t surprised that it’s translating to game-day success.

“Keion’s always been the type of guy that wants to do better,” defensive captain Deatrich Wise said. “Week in and week out he’s showing up. He’s doing great things on the field and off the field. He’s very smart. He’s been doing a great job with the opportunities he has. And every time he’s out there, he’s making a play.”

From Week 1 to Week 17, White believes he’s gotten a crash course on on life in the NFL.

“Situational awareness, I’m a completely different person,” White said. “Obviously technique-wise there’s a lot of things I can still clean up. You can take that into the offseason and get better, but as far as situational awareness and learning how the league operates, a lot better.”

As he eyes his first offseason and room for even more growth during in his second year in Foxborough, it’s easy to see why White would be excited given his development as a rookie. But the truth is, that excitement never leaves him. It fuels him.

“You’re always excited: You get to play football,” White said. “I could be working in an office right now behind a desk, but I’m playing in the NFL. So you’re always excited and always working on your craft and getting better for that.”