Mike Norvell is coming off back-to-back losing seasons at Florida State and has a buyout that will still be around $50 million by the time the 2026 season ends. For that reason, along with general NIL mismanagement from athletic director Michael Alford, Florida State had a tight budget this offseason.
The Seminoles didn’t make many splashes at the top of the market. Most of their money was seemingly spent on retention, keeping Duce Robinson and Ja’Bril Rawls in Tallahassee and pulling Jayvan Boggs and the Desir twins out of the portal.
However, there were two splashes that Norvell and first-year general manager John Garrett made near the top of the market: running back Quintrevion Wisner and left tackle Xavier Chaplin.
LT Xavier Chaplin didn’t come to Tallahassee cheap
Offensive linemen are hard to come by in the transfer portal, and with low supply and high demand, well, you know what happens. According to On3’s NIL reported valuations, it cost LSU $4 million to land Jordan Seaton, Miami paid $2.5 million to secure 2026 five-star Jackson Cantwell’s commitment, and Kentucky and Texas Tech each paid $2 million for Lance Heard and Howard Sampson, respectively.
Chaplin, an Auburn transfer who started all 12 games at left tackle last season, commanded $800 thousand on the open market, just shy of quarterback Ashton Daniels’ $1 million deal. To be clear, a one-year contract worth south of a million dollars is not the top of the market for an offensive tackle, but, aside from Miami, which is in a different financial stratosphere, it’s about the top of the ACC market.
Furthermore, Chaplin was far from the best left tackle in the SEC. He allowed 18 pressures and three sacks. The year prior at Virginia Tech, though, he was very effective.
Regardless, when you’re allocating that many resources to any single player, as FSU is in this case, you want to ensure you’re maximizing their value. That can happen in a number of ways, namely by staying healthy and performing well on the field. However, there are other offshoot benefits to adding a talented player to your roster.
Like they say, a rising tide, well, you know what it does.
Daily matchups with Chaplin should help FSU’s edge rushers improve
Chaplin should be Florida State’s best offensive tackle this season, at least that's the word out of fall camp. That also means he’s the best test for EDGE coach Nick Williams’ group of pass rushers.
“He’s a massive dude. He’s hard to get around, and that’s in the pass game and in the run game,” Williams said when asked about Chaplin on Tuesday. “Everyone is not that big. He’s rare. He has long arms, and he has good feet. So he’s made us a lot better. We appreciate his work every day.”
And it’s a group that needs to get a lot better. Florida State’s pass-rush left a lot to be desired last season. Three-star true freshmen Mandrell and Darryll Desir finished No. 1 and 3 on Tony White’s defense in pressures, and they aren’t even full-time edge players. For most of the year, they weren’t full-time players at all.
Texas A&M transfer Rylan Kennedy is projected to start at JACK linebacker, White’s stand-up spot in his 3-3-5 structure. JUCO transfer Jalen Anderson will also get work there.
Last season, James Williams, who followed White from Nebraska, led the way in edge snaps, but recorded just 22 pressures and three sacks. His pass -rush win rate was just 13.8 percent, the best on the team but only No. 19 among edge rushers in the ACC with at least 100 pass-rush snaps last season.
Kennedy was at 11.9 percent for Texas A&M with 14 pressures and 3 sacks. Two of those pressures came against Auburn in Week 5. Like Williams, Kennedy credited Chaplin for continued development this offseason, saying he “definitely got me right.”
Now, against ACC competition, Kennedy may be able to take another step, and facing a former SEC tackle in Chaplin every day could make gamedays feel a bit easier for the 6-foot-3, 251-pound senior and his teammates.
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