Houston made · LSU · No. 45

He quit football at fourteen

Then came back as a junior and led every high-school player in Texas in sacks. What followed was a torn ACL, a national championship, a first-round selection, a release nobody writes about, and three straight seasons setting a new career high. This is the whole thing, in order.

Games played

17.5

Career sacks

136

Tackles

Straight seasons setting a new career high in sacks

Career totals through the 2025 season.

Houston

North Shore made him

K'Lavon Chaisson was born in Houston on 25 July 1999 and grew up inside one of the most demanding high-school football cultures in the country. He went to North Shore Senior High — Mustang country, the school whose name his foundation's summer camp still carries.

He almost did not play. He walked away from football as a freshman to focus on basketball, and only came back as a junior. He started at defensive end immediately and led every high-school player in Texas with 15.5 sacks, adding 50 tackles and 13 for loss, and was named first-team all-state.

Baton Rouge · 2017–2019

The ACL, and the season that followed it

He arrived at LSU in 2017 and played straight away. Then his 2018 ended almost before it started — a torn ACL in the opener, and a year spent rebuilding a knee instead of rushing a passer.

The comeback is the part worth telling. In 2019 he put up 60 tackles, 6.5 sacks and 13.5 tackles for loss, was named First-Team All-SEC, and was Defensive MVP of the Peach Bowl. That LSU team went on to win the College Football Playoff national championship, and is still argued about as one of the best college teams ever assembled.

He left Baton Rouge with 92 career tackles, 19 for loss and 9.5 sacks — and a knee that had already answered the only question scouts really had.

Jacksonville · 2020–2023

Twentieth overall

The Jacksonville Jaguars took him with the 20th pick of the 2020 NFL Draft — a first-round edge rusher on a team in the middle of rebuilding itself more than once. He played 57 games over four seasons in Jacksonville.

It is the stretch of his career he is least sentimental about, and the one that shaped what came next: a player who had to learn how to be useful on somebody else's timeline before he got to be the point of the defense.

K'Lavon Chaisson with the Jacksonville Jaguars

2024

A spring in Carolina, an autumn in Las Vegas

He signed with the Carolina Panthers in March 2024 and was released that September, before the season began — the unglamorous middle of a professional career that almost never makes the highlight package.

Ten days later the Las Vegas Raiders signed him to their practice squad. He was promoted to the active roster in early October, played 15 games, and finished the year with 5.0 sacks. It was the first of three straight seasons in which he would set a new career high.

K'Lavon Chaisson with the Las Vegas Raiders

New England · 2025

A career year, and a Super Bowl

New England is where it turned. Sixteen games, 7.5 regular-season sacks — a career high — and AFC Defensive Player of the Week honours in Week 7 after a two-sack game that also included a fumble returned for a touchdown.

Then the run: three more sacks, nine quarterback hits and three tackles for loss across the playoffs, and an AFC championship. The Patriots reached Super Bowl LX in February 2026 and lost to Seattle. He got there as a starter on the defence that took them.

K'Lavon Chaisson with the New England Patriots

Washington · 2026

Number 45, under Dan Quinn

He signed a one-year deal with the Washington Commanders and wears No. 45, rushing off the edge in Dan Quinn's defence. It is the first season of his career he has entered coming off a career high, on a team that wanted him specifically.

Off the field he runs the Touch a Sole Foundation, which puts footwear, equipment and mentorship in front of young people who would otherwise sit a season out — the summer camp goes home to Houston, and the drives follow him to whichever city he is playing in.

The season is on

2026 schedule The foundation