Pats Pulpit
From the outside looking in, undrafted wide receiver Efton Chism III did everything he needed to do to make the New England Patriots 53-man roster this offseason.
But as NFL cut down day came, the nerves rightfully were there — especially when Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf called the 23-year-old into his office early Tuesday afternoon. Chism, who was in the building getting treatment, however, was left with good news.
“I was here working out, doing some stuff, and then he told me to come in. I was like, ‘Oh, here we go.’ But it was pretty sweet,” Chism said at his locker on Wednesday. “It’s pretty surreal, pretty sweet. Gave him a couple of hugs, couldn’t thank him enough.”
After leaving Wolf’s office, Chism got to work sharing the good news with those closest to him. That included a call to his girlfriend, his parents, friends from home, and old high school plus college coaches.
Inside the locker room, however, his teammates already seemed to know his fate.
“I haven’t really talked to him because I kind of knew, I knew he was going to make it. I think he knew, too,” fellow wide receiver DeMario Douglas said Wednesday. “His play, how he played on the field, that speaks for itself. He did good, bringing his details from the classroom to the field and showed his grit and how tough he is.”
Signed as an undrafted free agent back in April, Chism turned heads throughout the offseason program in the spring as he was a favorite target for all three Patriots quarterbacks.
While Chism was still getting open to start training camp, the receptions numbers didn’t pile up as quickly to begin the summer. Things quickly flipped, as Chism went on to become the team’s leading wide receiver in each of their first two preseason games in addition to being the best receiver on the field in a pair of joint practices in Minnesota.
“I just think it’s staying consistent in my process with whatever it is,” Chism said of his late summer surge. “I can’t control the ball coming to me and what’s going on, what the defense is doing stuff like that. So just continue to play ball and then kind of let the results speak for itself.”
Since preseason game No. 2 in Minnesota, Chism has been sidelined with a lower left leg injury that he suffered as he shed off multiple tacklers en route to finding the end zone. While he shared the missed time was tough for him as an undrafted player working towards a roster spot, his impact was already made prior.
Chism did make his return to the practice field on Wednesday as the team starts their preparation for the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 1, where the attitude now remains the same for him on the active roster.
“Same attitude, just how can I help the team out? How can we win games? What do I have...
