Chase Young made the contract the New Orleans Saints gave him look like an absolute steal last season, by becoming the player everyone knew he could be coming out of college. The only thing left is consistency and remaining healthy.
Young's raw numbers won't blow you away, but they become more impressive when you realize he did it in just 12 games. His 10 sacks were a season high, and he did it consistently. That suggests that Young would've been able to string that production over 17 games and possibly end with 13-14 sacks.
If Young continues his trajectory in a Saints uniform, those 13-14 sacks are more than attainable. Year 1 was a lot of pressure but not a lot of sacks. He fixed that problem in Year 2, so if that continues, he could be the game changing player the defense is looking for.
Chase Young can be the star the Saints defense needs
When you look around at the Saints defense, it’s a lot of players who have potential to be good to really good. The closest player to being a star, however, is Chase Young. The Saints need him to take that step forward.
We aren't talking about the Saints being great on that side of the ball. It's hard to be a really good defense without at least one star player. If that star is at a premier position, sometimes you only need one of them to transform the defense.
Young taking the step forward looks like making impact plays in the biggest moments. Third down and fourth quarter sacks. Cam Jordan's return was the talk of the offseason, but Young is the top guy in the room.
Having a star edge rusher trickles to the secondary as well by not requiring them to cover for nearly as long. Young is also a good run defender, so his ascension will impact every area of the Saints defense.
Young’s strip sack turned touchdown versus the Tennessee Titans is a great example of his game changing ability. That play could have easily been a standard sack or even a regular strip sack. Young snatched the ball so quickly that Cam Ward went straight to the ground on contact and Young still took the ball from him before Ward or the ball could hit the ground.
It’s those types of plays that are the marks of special players. Other players would have attacked the ball, and it would have went rolling on the ground. We know Young has special talent, and these are the impact plays the Saints want from him consistently.
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