Chase Young was the most dominant defensive player in college football last season. His highlight reel against Wisconsin? Downright scary.
Over his final couple of games, however, Young didn’t make much of an impact, at least not in the box score. In fact, he finished without a sack in both the Big Ten Championship and the Fiesta Bowl and had just two tackles against Clemson.
What should NFL teams make of this? Did teams figure out how to block Young down the stretch?
Not quite.
“The final three games, he was game-planned for like no other defensive player I’ve ever seen,” Pro Football Focus NFL Draft analyst Mike Renner said on The DA Show. “In that Clemson game, they completely changed up their offense to basically make sure Trevor Lawrence didn’t get killed by Chase Young. Not a lot of drop-back passes, ton of quick stuff, QB run game, getting Trevor Lawrence the ball to just get away [from Chase Young].”
Clemson beat Ohio State 29-23, as Lawrence ran 16 times for 107 yards and a touchdown. Young, though, did all he could.
“I think that narrative is far overblown,” Renner said, referring to the notion that teams figured out Young. “He was still the dominant guy when you look at solely one-on-one interactions the times he was able to go one-on-one. Chase Young is special. This is the best edge prospect we’ve seen in our six years of grading college prospects. Better than Myles Garrett. Better than the Bosa brothers coming out. I think he has as good of physical tools as any of those guys. The dude is a different animal.”
Northwestern found that out the hard way in a 52-3 loss in October.
“In the Northwestern game, first play of the game, he sacks the quarterback,” Renner said. “Eight of the next 10 plays, they rolled away from him. Eight of the next ten passing plays. He just completely changed their offense. They knew if we had to block Chase Young, it wasn’t going to end well for us.”
With the Cincinnati Bengals likely taking Joe Burrow with the No. 1 pick, the Washington Redskins almost have to take Young at No. 2, right?
“They’d have to be blown away by a trade or take a quarterback like Tua or whoever they believe in there,” Renner said. “I like Jeffrey Okudah. I like some of the other prospects. But Chase Young, he is the best edge guy I’ve seen in a while. I think he’s going to be top three to five in the NFL right off the bat.”