We don’t know who was Chase’s first choice.
There’s no known order. We know he had 3 known options as a FA and the Saints were one of the 3 teams that he was choosing from. He had 3 known visits scheduled in the same week. Purpose of the visits was to help him make his choice to sign a deal with one of the interested teams.
First team appears to have reached out first and scheduled a visit with his agent first. We don’t know why Chase and Carolina didn’t agree to a deal. It can be $ guarantees. Or Chase could have been turned off by Carolina FO and the team’s football plans for him during the visit. Those are much more plausible than being passed on since the teams is who showed interest and initiated/hosted the visits to convince him to sign with them.
He still had a visit with Tennessee planned before he signed with the Saints. Saints is who got the deal done. It was Chase’s choice and he ultimately chose the Saints