Chase Winovich

Edge rusher · Michigan · New England

Founder, Signet

From Jefferson Hills to the Big House to Foxborough. He rushed the passer at full volume, retired at 28, and went to work as a founder.

Former NFL edge rusher. Michigan Wolverine.

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Signature Moments

2013

Both ways at TJ

#15 · Linebacker and quarterback

Senior year at Thomas Jefferson in Jefferson Hills, outside Pittsburgh. Basketball too.

2017

First-team All-Big Ten

8.5 sacks · 73 tackles

Moved to defensive end and led the Big Ten in tackles for loss.

Dec 2017

Went orange

$15K goal · 13 hours

Dyed his hair for ChadTough. The Michigan effort passed $200K.

2018

All-American

AFCA 2nd team · All-Big Ten again

Came back for a fifth year and finished with 18.5 career sacks.

Feb 2019

The Combine

4.59 forty · 256 lb

A defensive end running like a linebacker in Indianapolis.

Apr 2019

77th overall

Round 3 · New England

Drafted by the Patriots. Four sacks in his first five games.

Oct 2019

Six yards. First touchdown.

Blocked punt · TNF vs Giants

Scooped the Bolden block and scored. Then fined for the spike into the stands.

2020

Led the Patriots in sacks

5.5 sacks · 1 INT · 1 FF

First career interception, off Justin Herbert in a 45-0 win.

Mar 2022

Parting ways with the flow

One haircut · traded 3 days later

Nine years of hair, gone after a meditation dream. Then Cleveland called.

Oct 2023

Retired at 28

56 games · 12.0 sacks · 107 tackles

Five seasons on the edge. Then a new kind of work.

“A special kind of energy. Attack!”

Linebacker and quarterback at Thomas Jefferson. Defensive end at Michigan, two years first-team All-Big Ten. Five seasons in the NFL, all of them on the edge.

Overall pick

2019 draft, New England

NFL sacks

0.0

56 games, 107 tackles

Michigan sacks

0.0

41 games, first-team All-Big Ten twice

Tackles for loss

Michigan career

2014 to 2018
Michigan
18.5 sacks, 43 TFL, All-American
2019 to 2021
New England
11.0 sacks, first TD, team sack lead
2022
Cleveland
Traded for Mack Wilson
2023
Houston, Miami
Preseason sack of the Patriots

Wild man. Soft side.

Long hair, loud energy, and the soft side the beat writers kept finding. Off the field: Portsmouth regular, Zeus's person, perspective collector.

Nine years of flow

Grown out since Michigan, dyed orange for ChadTough in 2017, cut in March 2022 after a meditation dream. Three days later he was traded to Cleveland. His read on it: “You guys didn’t like the haircut?”

9 yrsGrowing it out

3 daysHaircut to trade

The story ↗

“Parting ways with the flow today.”

Chase, March 2022

Pregame stretch — Pregame, Northwestern 2018

Hair out the back of the helmet — The flow, in uniform

Holding the Little Brown Jug — The Little Brown Jug, Ann Arbor

Spring game with a fan — Spring game, 2017

Rushing the passer — Off the edge, New England

Causes

Back home, and beyond

The giving has been direct and personal: a hair color for a cause, a lunch bill paid back home.

ChadTough

Pledged to dye his hair orange if fans raised $15,000 for pediatric brain cancer research. The goal fell in about 13 hours, teammates joined, and Michigan's total passed $200K.

chadtough.org ↗

Lunch debt, paid

Cleared the lunch debt of 96 students in the West Jefferson Hills School District, December 2019. “Growing up in TJ, the community has always been so important to me.”

CBS Pittsburgh ↗

Partnerships

01SignetFounder and CEO

On the mic at a Pro Athlete Community event

Founder and CEO

Signet

Creator and brand partnership tech: making everyone on social media an influencer, and turning authentic word of mouth into a measurable growth channel.

Journal

Go wherethere is no path.Leave a trail.

Five seasons on the edge, retired at 28, now building Signet. The line is from his Wolverine collection, and it reads like a plan.

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