Chase Young

Young’s NFL career has been immensely frustrating. He tore his ACL in Week 10 last season, and even before that managed just 26 tackles and 1.5 sacks in 455 snaps. Young’s strong rookie season and memorable collegiate career give reason to believe there’s still a star in there somewhere, but he’s a boom-or-bust proposition in the meantime.

Young impressed as a rookie after being drafted second overall in 2020, producing 44 tackles (32 solo) and 7.5 sacks on 770 snaps in 15 games. The sack total might not stand out, but it's strong production for a 21-year-old playing on a deep D-Line. This year, Young will probably take on a bigger workload with Ryan Kerrigan and Ryan Anderson gone. Young showed additional playmaking with four forced fumbles and three recoveries, one of which he returned for a touchdown. A more effective offense will give Young more pass-rush chances as opponents throw to keep up.

At the risk of assigning unfair expectations, it's nonetheless difficult to see a slow start to Young's NFL career. More than his own level of play, the greatest threat to Young's rookie production is the risk of a low snap count. Montez Sweat is poised to break out at defensive end, yet longtime great Ryan Kerrigan is probably still good enough to push for 800 or so snaps, and 2017 second-round pick Ryan Anderson is another threat to steal hundreds of defensive end snaps. Still, Young projects as an eventual threat to lead the league in sacks annually, and his talent might be compelling to the point of earning the most snaps among Washington linemen. His floor, unfortunately, may be something like 550 snaps.