Chase
Young.
Chase
Young.
Ohio State· 6'5"· 264 lb
"The rare edge prospect who was already a finished pass rusher in college — Young combined a first-step you cannot teach with hand usage most rookies spend three seasons trying to build."Pre-draft read
Primary left defensive end in Ohio State's four-man front, Young is a hand-in-the-dirt edge rusher whose calling card is get-off. He fires out of a three-point stance with a first step that forces tackles to open their hips immediately, then converts speed to power with a long-arm or crosses their face with an inside swipe. Everything is set up rather than improvised.
The secondary trait is finishing. He plays with violent, accurate hands at the top of the rush and strips the ball when he arrives, with six forced fumbles in his final season. Against the run he stacks and sheds with real anchor for an edge, setting a hard perimeter instead of getting reached. The separator is that the burst and the technique already lived in the same body.
Four-man front that lets him rush from a wide-nine or five-technique on early downs
Year 1 every-down starting end asked to rush the passer 40 times a game; ceiling is a double-digit-sack perennial All-Pro and defensive centerpiece
A two-gap 3-4 that asks him to read-and-react from a head-up alignment and neutralizes the get-off that is his whole game
Interior reduction on passing downs is where his power rush produces the cheapest wins
Chase Young | Ultimate 2019 Ohio State highlights
The 16.5-sack junior season, edge wins and strip-sacks.
Ohio State DE Chase Young 2019 Season Highlights
Season cut-up showing get-off and hand usage against Big Ten tackles.
2020 NFL Draft: Ohio State Buckeyes DE Chase Young | B1G Football
Conference-produced draft profile reel.
Young is a premium edge defender with a rare blend of explosiveness, length and refinement. The football identity is a wide-alignment rusher who wins the corner, but the tape shows a player who can also bull, counter inside and defend the run without being schemed off the field. He was the best non-quarterback in the class from the moment the 2019 season started.
The production is the argument. He posted 16.5 sacks and 21 tackles for loss in 12 games as a junior, leading the country in sacks despite missing two games to an NCAA suspension over a loan. He added six forced fumbles, won the Nagurski and Bednarik awards, was Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and finished fourth in Heisman voting. Across three years he totaled 30.5 sacks and 43 tackles for loss in 36 games. He did not test at the Combine, so the athletic profile rested on tape rather than numbers.
The board treated him as the clear second player off the board behind Burrow, and several evaluators graded him as the highest-value pick in the draft. The only flags were durability stemming from an ankle problem and the absence of testing. Washington, already deep on the defensive line, still took the best player available and never blinked.
- 01
Elite get-off
Explodes out of his stance and threatens the outside shoulder instantly, forcing tackles to open early and creating the counter lanes he lives in.
- 02
Refined hand usage
Long-arm, swipe and chop are all functional and sequenced, which is why his rushes finish rather than stall at the tackle's chest.
- 03
Ball production
Six forced fumbles as a junior show a rusher who attacks the football at the top of the rush instead of settling for the tackle.
- 04
Run-defense anchor
Sets a firm edge with length and leverage, stacking tight ends and tackles rather than getting displaced on down blocks.
- 05
Best-player-available grade
Led FBS in sacks in 12 games and swept the major defensive awards against the strongest offensive tackles on the schedule.
- 01
No Combine testing
Skipped drills entirely, leaving teams without verified speed or explosion numbers to confirm what the tape implied.
- 02
Durability flags
Ankle issues limited him at points and the frame takes a heavy pounding from his power-rush style.
- 03
Occasional high pad level
Rises out of his stance against power run schemes, which lets bigger tackles get under him and widen the alley.
- 04
Counter variety inside
Wins so often with the outside track that his inside moves are less developed against tackles who set deep and fast.
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Ohio State | 10 | 19 | 3.5 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 2018 | Ohio State | 14 | 34 | 10.5 | 0 | 5 | 2 |
| 2019 | Ohio State | 12 | 46 | 16.5 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| Career | — | 36 | 99 | 30.5 | 0 | 8 | 9 |
Sports-Reference totals including bowl games; season sums match the career line exactly. Zeros shown are verified zeros in the source table.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Disruptive every-down end whose sack totals undersell the pressure and run-defense value.
Same combination of instant get-off and finished hand technique, with the ball-stripping finish.
Athletic edge whose career becomes a series of good stretches interrupted by injury and inconsistency.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Young won Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2020 with 7.5 sacks, 44 tackles and four forced fumbles in 15 games in Washington. Then the injuries arrived: a torn ACL ended 2021 after nine games and 1.5 sacks, and the recovery limited him to three games and no sacks in 2022. He looked like himself again in 2023, producing five sacks in seven games before a midseason trade to San Francisco, where he added 2.5 in nine games and reached a Super Bowl. New Orleans signed him in 2024, where he played all 17 games with 5.5 sacks, then had his best professional season in 2025 with 10 sacks in 12 games. Through two weeks of 2026 he has 1.5 sacks for the Saints.
The honest retrospective is that the evaluation was right and the body got in the way. When healthy, he has been exactly the rusher the tape promised, and the 2025 season proved the traits never left. But 74 games in seven years is the story: the durability flag that was a footnote in April 2020 became the defining variable of the career. He is a good, occasionally excellent starter with 33.5 career sacks rather than the perennial All-Pro the grade projected, and Washington's decision at two was still defensible.
Data note: 2019 Bronko Nagurski Trophy and Chuck Bednarik Award winner / AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year