Chase Young shows encouraging signs against Broncos
Breaking down the performance of star defensive end Chase Young
Commanders defensive end Chase Young made his season debut against the Broncos this past Sunday. Young missed the majority of the 2022 season recovering from a major knee injury that saw him miss half of the 2021 season. He played the final three games of last season but still looked a bit hesitant at times to fully trust his knee.
During training camp, reports were positive about Young’s knee and his ability to return to the player that won defensive rookie of the year back in 2020, then he suffered a neck injury four snaps into the first preseason game which saw him miss the rest of preseason and the first game of the regular season. However he was finally cleared to play against Denver and he made a significant impact.
Young looked eager to impress as he generated 1.5 sacks and more importantly, consistent pressure off the edge. He was a significant threat throughout the game which forced the Broncos to adjust their protection plan to provide help to their left tackle against Young. His first sack showed why the tackle needed help.
Here we see the Broncos down in the red zone. Young aligns outside the left tackle with the running back to his side. As the ball is snapped, Young immediately looks to attack with speed off the edge. He doesn’t worry about a potential chip from the running back, who ends up releasing freely outside of him, instead he just pins his ears back and gets up the field. We also don’t see that stutter step rush he had become too reliant on. Thanks to him committing to just a pure speed rush, he’s able to get the tackle in trouble quickly.
By Young’s third step, the tackle is already opened up and has his hips square to the sideline instead of staying square to the line of scrimmage. This gives Young a path around the edge. He looks to use his speed around the edge combined with a rip move to try and break through. That rip move gets the tackle’s arm up around Young’s neck, which isn’t in itself a penalty, but if it’s prolonged can turn into one if the tackle gets caught with his hand on the facemask or holding onto the jersey.
Young doesn’t fully break the block of the tackle, but he does generate plenty of pressure off the edge. This forces quarterback Russel Wilson to step up in the pocket. However, as Wilson steps up in the pocket to avoid Young, Jonathan Allen is there to provide interior pressure. After stepping up, Wilson recognizes he has nowhere to go inside and takes off running to his right. This is where Young comes back into the play. Young shows great effort in pursuit as he continues around the edge and breaks free of the tackle to chase down Wilson from behind to complete the sack.
It was clearly a big moment of both joy and relief for Young. It was his first sack since October 2021, before he suffered his major knee injury. Yes he was back on the field for three games at the end of last season and had some good moments, but he was also slightly tentative at times to fully trust that knee and lacked the explosiveness he was known for in college. This play looked like the Chase Young of old.
That wasn’t Young’s only sack of the game. He and Montez Sweat shared a sack too.
Like before, we see the Broncos down in the red zone with Young working off the edge against the Broncos left tackle. This time though, Young switches up his rush technique. Having given the tackle trouble with his speed rush earlier, Young sets up his rush by taking his first few steps up the field like his previous speed rush. However, once the tackle opens his hips towards the sideline, Young then converts his speed into power. He lands one hand on the chest of the tackle and his other on the inside shoulder of the tackle.
With his hands in a good spot and the tackle too open towards the sideline, Young is able to convert his speed into power and drive the tackle backwards towards the quarterback. Young runs the tackle right into the quarterback, forcing Wilson to bail out of the pocket and spin out to his left. As he does that, Wilson is met by Jon Allen again, who looped around Young’s rush to replace him on the edge. Wilson tries his best to avoid Allen by working back inside, but there he’s met by a combination of Montez Sweat and Chase Young, who bring him down for the sack.
This felt like a sack Washington has been waiting to see for years now. With four first-round picks invested in that defensive line, the expectation is that they can dominate games up front. While Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne have done that inside, the edge rushers haven’t necessarily provided the consistent pressure off the edge to back that up. Here we saw exactly what it can look like when all four are on the field and playing well. It was relentless pressure on Wilson who had one of those first-round picks in his face wherever he tried to go on that play.
But it wasn’t just the sacks that made this a good game for Young. He was consistently able to generate pressure off the edge which led to big play opportunities for his teammates.
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