LSU football has never lacked star power at wide receiver. If anything, it’s been overwhelmed by it.
Ja’Marr Chase. Justin Jefferson. Malik Nabers. Brian Thomas Jr.
Those names dominate highlight reels, NFL rankings, and draft conversations. They are the faces of “Wide Receiver University,” the ones fans remember first.
But as the 2025 NFL season comes to an end, something quietly unexpected has happened.
Only one former LSU wide receiver is headed to the Super Bowl.
And it’s not the one most people would have predicted.
That receiver is Kayshon Boutte.
At LSU, Boutte’s story never followed the clean, upward arc of his predecessors. He arrived just after the legendary 2019 championship team and exploded late in his freshman season, posting 27 catches for 527 yards and four touchdowns in his final three games. For a brief moment, it looked like LSU’s next generational star had arrived.
Then things slowed. Injuries. Inconsistency. A program in transition.
Boutte never again reached the dizzying heights of that 2020 stretch. While Chase and Jefferson turned dominance into legacy, Boutte became something else: solid, productive, but increasingly overlooked. By the time he left Baton Rouge, the hype had faded — even if the numbers remained respectable.
Statistically, his LSU career still holds weight.
According to Sports Reference, Boutte finished with:
- 131 receptions (15th all-time at LSU)
- 1,781 receiving yards (20th all-time)
- 16 receiving touchdowns (tied for 10th all-time)
Those numbers place him ahead of names like Abram Booty in yards and alongside Tony Moss and Kyren Lacy in touchdowns. Not legendary territory by LSU standards — but far from insignificant.
Yet context matters.
In a program that regularly produces NFL superstars, Boutte became the receiver people stopped projecting greatness onto. He wasn’t the “next Chase.” He wasn’t the “next Jefferson.” He existed in the space between expectation and reality — a place fans rarely revisit.
Until now.
As the NFL’s biggest names from LSU endured difficult seasons — Jefferson battling quarterback instability, Nabers sidelined by a torn ACL — Boutte kept working quietly. No viral clips. No loud narratives. Just survival in one of the league’s toughest environments.
And now, unexpectedly, he’s here.
The Super Bowl.
The irony is hard to miss. The receiver who never fully lived up to LSU’s massive expectations is the one still standing when the lights are brightest. It doesn’t rewrite history. It doesn’t erase what Chase, Jefferson, or Nabers have already accomplished.
But it reframes the conversation.
For the New England Patriots, Boutte isn’t asked to be a savior. He’s asked to contribute against what many believe is the league’s best defense — the Seattle Seahawks. The kind of defense that punishes hesitation and exposes weakness.
Patriots fans can only hope he taps into something familiar. Into the memory of December 2020, when Boutte torched Ole Miss for 14 catches, 308 yards, and three touchdowns — one of the most explosive performances in LSU history.
No one expects that again. Not even close.
But Super Bowls are rarely won by the loudest names alone. Sometimes they hinge on players who understand how it feels to be doubted, forgotten, and underestimated.
Kayshon Boutte has lived in that space for years.
Now, he steps onto football’s biggest stage — not as LSU’s greatest receiver, but perhaps as its most quietly resilient one.
And that might matter more than anyone expected.
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