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BREAKING: What signing K’Lavon Chaisson in free agency means for the Patriots

Posted on March 18, 2025 - 1:55 am by

What signing K’Lavon Chaisson in free agency means for the Patriots© Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images

The New England Patriots introduced their first batch of free agency signings at Gillette Stadium on Thursday afternoon. Shortly thereafter, they added yet another player to the group.

K’Lavon Chaisson, a former first-round draft pick by the Jacksonville Jaguars who spent the 2024 season with the Las Vegas Raiders, is coming aboard on a reported one-year contract. Let’s find out what the move means for the Patriots.

Much-needed pass rush help

The defensive edge was a major need for the Patriots heading into the offseason, but they made only one addition during the early parts of free agency: Harold Landry was signed to a three-year pact after his release from the Tennessee Titans.

The team is expecting big things out of Landry, or else he would not have been added on a rather prominent contract, but it takes more than one man to properly stock the shelves at his position. Enter K’Lavon Chaisson.

Obviously, Chaisson has not lived up to being the 20th overall selection in the 2020 NFL Draft. He had a disappointing career with the Jaguars, and did not even make it out of training camp with the Carolina Panthers last summer. What he did do next, though, was encouraging: he joined the Raiders, and had arguably his best season to date.

One area where he showed particular promise was the pass rush, and this is exactly where he should help New England as well.

Coming off a season in which he set new career highs in sacks (5) and quarterback pressures (29), he projects as a complementary piece next to Landry and returning starter Anfernee Jennings.

Landry is an all-around option on the edge capable of performing on three downs, while both Jennings and Chaisson are more one-dimensional players. The former is one of the best run-stopping outside linebackers in the NFL, while the latter has the speed and quickness to make an impact on passing downs.

Time will tell whether that will really happen or who else will be added in the future, but that is what the core group looks like at the moment.

Ball production

Chaisson did not only increase his pass rush production in 2024, he also showed an improved ability to locate and attack the football. He broke up a pair of passes, forced his first career fumble, and managed to record an interception against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 14 (he also had another pick against his former team, the Jaguars, ruled incomplete).

While Chaisson’s numbers certainly do not stand out, the Patriots need any and all help they can get after ranking 30th in the league with only 12 takeaways last season. The 25-year-old does not have a proven track record of ball production, but the arrow is pointing up based on his performance as a Raider last season.

Trickle-down effect

The Patriots had to rebuild their defensive edge after a disastrous 2024 season, and they are doing so one signing at a time. After already adding the aforementioned Harold Landry over the weekend, they now brought in Chaisson as another piece of the puzzle.

The group is starting to take shape, as a look at our up-to-date roster shows:

Defensive edge (5): Harold Landry III (2), Anfernee Jennings (33), K’Lavon Chaisson (–), Titus Leo (97), Truman Jones (54)

Chaisson together with Landry and Anfernee Jennings look like the top 3 at the moment, as mentioned above. Jennings in particular should benefit from the former first-rounder coming in, as the signing might allow him to focus on his early-down work.

The biggest benefactor of Chaisson being added to the equation might not be the current outside linebacker group, though, but rather defensive end Keion White. At least right away, the third-year man might not have to move out to the edge as much as he had to in 2024 — a usage that did not play to his strengths, leading to some less-than-stellar play.

With Chaisson and Harold Landry both brought aboard, and more additions potentially following, the Patriots can afford to keep White on the interior until his edge play becomes more consistent. He might need more time for that to happen, something having Chaisson around could help provide.

Gamble worth taking

What we know of Chaisson’s contract so far is that it is a one-year deal with a maximum value of $5 million. The base value, however, is expected to come in significantly lower than that; ESPN’s Mike Reiss mentioned $3 million as a ballpark figure.

Regardless of the final number, it is obvious that the deal will be a relatively modest one reflective of Chaisson’s status as a somewhat unclear projection. He might turn out to be Patriots Mike Vrabel’s version of Titans Mike Vrabel’s Arden Key, but he also could flame out and go a similar path as he did in Carolina last year.

What the financial commitment shows is that the Patriots acknowledge this possibility. Still, the upside cannot be denied either which makes the gamble worth taking for a team that a) needs to bolster its edge depth and pass rush rotation, and b) entered the day with roughly $90 million in salary cap space to work with.

Familiarity, duh

There is that word again, familiarity.

By now, you probably have noticed that almost every addition to the roster and coaching staff this offseason has had some history with either Mike Vrabel or one of his assistant coaches. Obviously, this being the NFL, that is only natural; there are just 32 teams one can be a part of, after all.

Nonetheless, it is clear that Vrabel values personal connection in his quest to reshape the Patriots from a cultural perspective. In Chaisson’s case, that connection is Doug Marrone: New England’s first-year offensive line coach was the one who drafted the edge rusher out of LSU in 2020, when he served as head coach in Jacksonville.