Some players need more time than others to hit their stride in the NFL. That appears to be the case of K'Lavon Chaisson, who flopped with the Jacksonville Jaguars but is coming off a career season with the Las Vegas Raiders. Now, the player formerly known as Swiper will have a chance to continue his career comeback with the New England Patriots.
Chaisson signed a one-year contract worth $5 million with the Patriots. His new deal isn't much different from the one he got from the Carolina Panthers last year.
The difference is that Chaisson's stock wasn't particularly high when he joined the Panthers. In fact, he was cut just months after landing in Carolina. However, he eventually latched onto the Raiders and went on to register a career-best five sacks, an interception, and a forced fumble.
Surprisingly, the LSU product wasn't in demand to start free agency, but that doesn't mean he won't be able to make an impact in New England. In fact, he and Harold Landry III will be expected to give the pass rush a boost. Last year, no Patriots player had more than five sacks, so Chaisson could turn out to be a low-risk, high-reward kind of signing.
Of course, there's always a risk Chaisson will regress, which is a possibility when you take into account that he's leaving the team where he flourished. It's also worth noting that before suiting up for Las Vegas, the Texans native only had five career sacks.
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K'Lavon Chaisson is finally becoming the player the Jaguars expected
When the Jacksonville Jaguars drafted K'Lavon Chaisson 20th overall in 2020, they expected him to be a rotational piece in what seemed to be a deep pass rush. However, plans changed when the team traded Calais Campbell and Yannick Ngakoue. Without the veteran duo, Chaisson was pressed into a bigger role than originally anticipated. To nobody's surprise, he struggled.
At LSU, Chaisson rushed the quarterback from a standup position but was asked to play with his hand on the ground in Jacksonville. That hindered his development early on but he flashed at the end of his rookie season. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to build off of his strong finish and went on to have an unremarkable 2021 season. Things didn't change even after Doug Pederson's arrival the following year.
In spite of getting a clean slate, Chaisson was unremarkable in 2022. And the only reason he was the No. 3 in the rotation in 2023 was that the Jags didn't have anybody else. And after four unremarkable seasons, Jacksonville had seen enough of him and let him walk in 2024.
Looking back, there's no doubt that the regime that drafted Chaisson mismanaged his development. Having said that, he also deserves blame for not taking advantage of the many opportunities he was given.
Maybe he wasn't mature enough. Perhaps he needed time to get acclimated to the rigors of the NFL, but regardless of the reason, Chaisson finally hit his stride in 2024. He'll now get a chance with the Patriots to prove he's not a one-year wonder.
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