The New England Patriots are welcoming back a familiar face.

J.C. Jackson is returning to Foxborough, getting traded from the Los Angeles Chargers for a late-round pick swap in the 2025 NFL Draft, the NFL Network's Ian Rapoport first reported on Wednesday. The trade ends a brief, but incredibly disappointing tenure for Jackson in Southern California and returns him to the team where he started his NFL career, thriving in the last pair of seasons before joining the Chargers in 2022.

Here are our trade grades for Wednesday's move.

Patriots: B

The Patriots were in desperate need of help at cornerback. Jonathan Jones, Marcus Jones, and Jack Jones have all missed the majority of the first four games of the season, with the latter two on injured reserve and no return in sight.

While Jonathan Jones has been week-to-week with an ankle injury that's cost him three games, the Patriots received a major blow on Wednesday when it was reported that rookie standout Christian Gonzalez will miss the remainder of the season. He reportedly tore the labrum in his shoulder in the Patriots' Week 4 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.

As the Patriots face the possibility of playing without their top four corners in Week 5 (and beyond), acquiring a starting-caliber corner was almost a necessity. The big question: Is Jackson still a starting-caliber corner?

Jackson did not live up to the expectations that came with him when he signed a five-year, $82.5 million deal last offseason, making him one of the highest-paid corners in NFL history. The Chargers benched him by Week 6 in 2022 and when he returned to the lineup a week later, he tore his patellar tendon. Jackson was healthy enough to return to play by the start of this season, but he was a healthy scratch in Week 3 and didn't play in Week 4 even though he was active.

In addition to not playing the last two weeks, Jackson noted ahead of Week 4 that he's still not feeling “100 percent,” adding that doctors have said the same thing.

So, it's far from a guarantee that the 27-year-old is going to be playing at the level he was at when he left New England following the 2021 season, completing a two-year span in which he recorded 17 interceptions. It's obviously unknown what other corners might have been available on the market considering it's only Week 5, but it's also easy to imagine that there are corners that present a higher floor than what Jackson has brought over the last two seasons.

On the flip side, Jackson's familiarity with the Patriots' defensive system makes it more likely he'll be able to suit up right away for the Patriots, which they obviously need. It also might allow him to reach the heights he achieved in 2020 and 2021, when he earned a Pro Bowl and an All-Pro nod.

The move also cost the Patriots next to nothing. They're reportedly paying just $1.5 million of his contract for the remainder of the 2023 season and swapped their fifth-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft for a sixth-round pick that year. He also has no guaranteed money left on his contract after this season, making it easy for the Patriots to cut ties if things don't go well.

There's certainly a low floor in this move for the Patriots, but there's a reasonable upside, as well.

Chargers: A-

On the flip side of this, Los Angeles gets to end what was a nightmare over the last two seasons.

Jackson didn't come close to playing at the level his contract demanded. He recorded just one interception over his very brief tenure there. He was credited for allowing five touchdowns over the seven total games he played there, as well, giving up 25 receptions on 40 targets to a receiver he was covering for 488 yards, according to Pro Football Focus.

The injuries and his recent legal dustup certainly made it even more difficult for the Chargers to justify the contract they gave him a year ago.

Now, they aren't totally off the hook. Los Angeles will reportedly be paying all but $1.5 million of Jackson's remaining $9.33 million salary for this season. But it was clear that his time with the Chargers was nearing its end, and the fact that they were even able to recoup just a smidge of trade value makes this a worthy enough trade for them.