2015 was, by all individual statistical accounts, the best season of Chandler Jones’ four-year career up until that point. The former first-round draft choice registered a team-high 12.5 sacks, which ranked him fifth in the league, and was a core member of the New England Patriots’ rotation along the defensive edge. He was also voted to his first Pro Bowl and showed why picking up the fifth-year option of his rookie contract was the right call.
And then, in March 2016, Jones was gone: the Patriots traded him to the Arizona Cardinals for guard Jonathan Cooper and a second-round draft selection later that spring.