Chase Young developing beyond raw athletic ability, Ron Rivera says
Chase Young is entering just his second NFL season, but the 2020 Defensive Rookie of the Year has already made significant adjustments to his game.
Here’s what Washington Football head coach Ron Rivera said of the former Ohio State star following Washington’s preseason opener against the New England Patriots:
“I think it’s about having a plan more so than anything else and just not relying on your tremendous athletic ability,” Rivera said. “Secondly, as he’s developing that repertoire, he has to have a good feel for setting up one to complement the other. These are all things that as he gets more and more experience, becomes more of a veteran player, it will become even more natural. That’s one of the tough things. When you get these really good players coming from college football to the NFL, their initial thought is I’ve always been better than everybody. Then as they catch up to this league and these guys are just as good, in a lot of cases now it really becomes where you’ve got to be able to rely on what your repertoire is of past moves. What your counters are, how quickly your counters come.”
Cam Newton on Chase Young
It didn’t take long for the Washington second-year pro to shine when he hit the field in 2021.
Young went into Thursday’s preseason game against New England knowing he would only have a handful of snaps to showcase his talent, and he delivered in a major way. On third down, just a few minutes into the first quarter, the sack-specialist pulled out one of his signature moves, creating mayhem for Cam Newton.
“He’s smaller than I thought,” Newton joked when asked about Chase Young after the game. “I’m just messing with you. That’s a joke. That’s a joke. I’m just messing with you. But yeah, he’s going to be good, man. He’s going to be good. He’s going to be real good. But I’ve got to do a better job of protecting the football. He kind of got me like right in the tweener when I was letting the ball going or trying to pull it back. Coach talks about it all the time, man, ball security is job security, and that’s what it comes down to.”
Young had his own comments on taking down the former Heisman Trophy winner, who is listed officially at 6-foot-5, 245 pounds.
“He’s very big, very big” Young said. “When I hit him, I felt that he was a big dude. I’ll say that. But you know, we’re like the same size, so it wouldn’t have been like me to [not] take Cam down, so gotta take him down.”