In some hands, you just know a catch is good.
Patriots undrafted free agent Efton Chism III’s high school coach, Michael Bumpus, recalled pushing the youngster off the sidelines before a critical fourth down in the state playoff semifinals nine years ago. He had just bumped him up to varsity as a freshman. His Monroe Bearcats were looking for the first postseason win in program history.
“It's fourth-and-2, and we pack it in. Everyone thinks we're gonna run the football, but I put him at tight end and we fake the handoff. He runs up the seam and it's cloudy,” Bumpus remembered. “It was like a Willie Mays catch over the shoulder. It was a difficult catch. But while the ball’s in the air, I'm already celebrating, because I know he's going to catch it.”
Chism can’t run a 40-yard dash in under 4.5 seconds. He’s an inch shy of 6 feet. He’s coming out of an FCS school on the other side of the country. But the men who have coached him insist he’s got hands New England could use.
“If he was [running] 4.4 [seconds], he’d be more intriguing, I guess, from a measurables standpoint and metrics – but he’s not. But he gets open. He understands space,” his Eastern Washington University coach, Aaron Best, said.
Bumpus chuckled discussing Chism. He started training him back when he was in sixth grade, and he doesn’t mince words about the opportunity here on both sides:
“The Patriots would be freaking silly not to put this kid on the 53-man [roster].”
‘Best kid I’ve ever coached’
Chism’s hometown of Monroe, Washington sits about 30 miles northeast of Seattle, at the base of the Cascade Mountains. It’s the site of the state fair, but it’s undergoing some changes.
“I call it the first country town outside of Seattle,” Bumpus said. “You know, there’s farms out here, there’s pickup trucks and overalls. It’s turned a corner a bit the last, maybe, five or six years, because we’re getting a lot of Microsoft and Amazon people out here. But it’s just cows, and you know, a country town.”
Two blocks from a quaint main street, there’s also Bumpus’ gym, Elite Training Academy, which he owns and operates with his wife, Jennifer. That’s where he first met Chism in 2013.
“[He’s] the hardest working kid I've ever coached. And I've coached for 14 years at my facility. We have at least 100, 120 athletes come through a year that play football. He just works his butt off, man,” he said.
Chism started the 7v7 football circuit in middle school, and had a cool and collected way about himself.
“To be quite frank you know when we go to these national tournaments, you got this little white dude and then all the brothers want to challenge him and talk to him and, you know, try to get him out of who he is,” Bumpus laughed. “And he never flinched at one time. And that's just who he is. Best kid I ever coached.”
It was the start of a long relationship between Bumpus and Chism, and one that they still maintain today. Bumpus, a former Seattle Seahawks receiver, took the head coaching job at the local high school in 2015. Chism joined his squad the next year. Under Bumpus’ watchful eye, he recorded 166 catches for 2,581 yards and 31 touchdowns. He set a school record for most receptions (13) and yards (215) in a single game. In addition to excelling at receiver and on punt return, he earned All-state honorable mention as a defensive back.
He was also driving over four hours out to Cheney, Washington, to watch the Eastern Washington University Eagles play on Saturdays – trips Coach Best still remembers.
‘Catching is not an art’
As an FCS school, Best admits they don’t attract the same level of talent as a University of Washington or Oregon. But the receiver talent they develop is undeniable: both Super Bowl LVI MVP Cooper Kupp and the Patriots’ own Kendrick Bourne played their entire careers in Cheney.
Like those two players, Best saw a lot to love in Chism.
“He checks every box, and then some,” he said.
As a true freshman (COVID added a shortened 2020 season), he played in every game and caught 80 passes for 735 yards. It was the start of a college career with eyepopping numbers: over 53 games, he posted 3,852 receiving yards on 346 catches, and 37 touchdowns. Those numbers put him in second place in program history, behind just Kupp. But his senior year, he broke Kupp’s record for most receptions in a season, with 120.
Although Chism lacks Kupp’s height and catch radius, Best believes what’s between the ears matters a great deal.
“I really believe catching is not an art. It’s about concentration,” Best said. “I don't know how these kids do it in the backyards nowadays, but house rules back in the day, when you grew to seven years old and played football, it was if you can touch it, you catch it. And so, I've always told and felt this way about receivers. You touch, you catch. He’s a natural ball catcher.”
He doesn’t like to continue comparing Chism to Kupp. But just as their stats sit side-by-side in the EWU records books, their approach to failure mirrors one another’s.
“Their thought is, that they put a ball on the ground, they should have caught the ball. They look at us like, ‘I let my teammates down. Like, I'm better than that.’ That's kind of a selfless teammate approach that they have,” Best said. “And it's not that they dropped it. ‘Oh, darn, was that me? Or I caught 99 balls before that.’ It's like, ‘I'm better than this. Like, I owe my teammates more execution than this.’”
Having never worked in the NFL, he admits he can’t definitively recognize pro-level talent when he sees it on his own team. He just knows who will get a shot. Like Kupp and Bourne, Chism has a shot this summer.
‘He’ll do the dirty work’
Chism didn’t hear his name called in the NFL Draft, but signing his deal as an undrafted free agent with the Patriots was cause for celebration in Monroe. Bumpus swung by the Chism house for a party held in the receiver’s honor, and then sat down with the family for a frank conversation about the process of making an NFL team – something Bumpus knows, firsthand.
He made his way onto the Seahawks roster as an undrafted free agent wideout in 2008, where he played four games and even caught a touchdown pass from Matt Hasselbeck against the St. Louis Rams. He told Chism’s parents, a school teacher and Marine Corps veteran, that the signing was the start of a “big battle.”
The Patriots guaranteed Chism $259,000 in the signing, a historically rich check for an undrafted player. But Bumpus doesn’t put too much stock into that.
“Even if you guys signed a guaranteed contract, the NFL will cut you. It does, they do not care. And it's not personal,” he said.
Chism went to work in Organized Team Activities (OTAs), and quickly became backup quarterback Josh Dobbs’ favorite option. During one practice open to media, he caught all seven of his targets in competitive team drills – including one from starter Drake Maye.
“Chis had about 50 catches, I feel like, in OTAs,” Maye joked, when asked about his receivers in mandatory minicamp.
The Patriots’ receiver room could use a pair of steady hands. The group ranked towards the bottom of the league in production last season, and now several young players are battling just for a spot on the 53-man roster. Both Bumpus and Best agree that Chism’s strongest chance to make the team may come through special teams. He returned tons of punts and kicks for EWU, but the Patriots already have a world-class punt returner in Marcus Jones.
Still, Jones has a track record of injuries, and the Patriots could use someone to return kickoffs.
“He has great hands and makes good decisions,” Bumpus said. “But he’s also used to tackling somebody. So he’ll be a gunner. He’ll do the dirty work, and he’ll be fine.”
Chism’s final day before the five-week break leading up to training camp was inside the bubble at Gillette. With a Patriots headband pulled up against his short, blond hair, he smiled and discussed the friendships he’s already made on the team. Third-round pick Kyle Williams played 90 minutes away from him at Washington State, and they regularly stay late together to get in extra work. He detailed “gems” Stefon Diggs has dropped in meetings. And even though they may be competing for the same position, he praised teammate DeMario “Pop” Douglas’ skills through OTAs:
“I love watching Pop,” he said. “Especially since I’ve been here, since we play similar positions, getting to see him run around and do different things in our offense, it’s special. But you can go back and see all the Patriots’ slot history.”
That history includes plenty of longshot receivers who found success in Foxborough. Danny Amendola, built nearly identically to Chism, first signed as an undrafted free agent with the Cowboys in 2013. In 2009, the Patriots selected Julian Edelman in the seventh round. More recently, they signed Jakobi Meyers as an undrafted free agent in 2019.
Chism detailed a boring five weeks ahead. Wake up early to condition and lift. Work the JUGS machine, tennis ball reaction drills, and flashcards. And of course, study McDaniels’ playbook.
“That playbook’s going to be huge. So when I come back, [I want to] not have that lull. Just hit the ground running,” he said.
Making the 53-man roster is an enormous challenge for any undrafted player. Chism, at least, has the benefit of coaching that’s taught him what matters on the field.
“He’s probably not going to beat you deep too many times, but he’s going to set you up and he’s going to get open. He just gets open more often than not,” Best said. “At the end of the day, it’s like, if you’re open, you’re open. You know what you’re going to get.”