Fredd Young, the punishing linebacker who became one of the Seattle Seahawks’ defining defensive players in the 1980s, died Tuesday at 64.
The announcement came Wednesday from both New Mexico State, his college alma mater, and the Seahawks. No cause of death was disclosed.
Young’s path to the NFL started in Dallas, where he played football and basketball at Woodrow Wilson High School before making his mark at New Mexico State. He spent four seasons with the Aggies from 1980-83, developed into a four-year starter and earned first-team All-Missouri Valley Conference honors in 1982.
The next year brought even bigger recognition. Young was an honorable mention All-American after piling up 140 tackles and 12 sacks to lead New Mexico State. He left school with 393 tackles.
Seattle took him in the third round, 76th overall, of the 1984 NFL Draft, and he wasted no time making an impact. Young made the Pro Bowl as a rookie on special teams, becoming the first non-return specialist to earn Pro Bowl honors in that role.
By his second season, Young had moved into the starting linebacker lineup, and he kept the Pro Bowl run going through 1987. His best Seahawks season came in that final year, when he posted nine sacks, five forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries and an interception in 13 games. That performance earned him first-team All-Pro recognition.
Young played four seasons in Seattle before a 1988 trade sent him to the Indianapolis Colts in exchange for two first-round draft picks after a contract dispute. He played three seasons in Indianapolis and retired after the 1990 season. Over seven NFL seasons, he appeared in 101 regular-season games, started 79 and finished with 21 sacks and three interceptions.
The Seahawks included Young among the top 50 players in franchise history in 2025 during the team’s 50th-season celebration. New Mexico State had already inducted him into its athletics Hall of Fame in 1991, and he later joined the school’s Football Ring of Honor.
In Other News...
Mavericks Still Have One Big Kyrie Problem To Solve
Training camp is approaching with Dallas still trying to sort out what life looks like at point guard once Kyrie Irving is fully back from ACL recovery. The roster around him has changed quite a bit, with several previous guards moved out and the team trying to patch the position with new faces and internal options. Marcus Sasser and rookie Sergio De Larrea are part of that effort, but the Mavericks are also staring at the possibility that they may need to lean on Cooper Flagg or Naji Marshall at times just to get through the early part of the year.
The bigger question is whether the front office is done searching. Dallas still has room to keep reshaping the backcourt, and the current mix does not fully answer how the team wants to cover those minutes behind Irving. If the guard group still looks thin once camp gets going, the Mavericks could be forced to use one of their frontcourt pieces as trade material to bring in another handler before the season starts. [Read more 🡒]
Caleb Martin Could Fill A Mavericks Need That Still Has No Answer
Dallas has done a good job of bolstering its wing depth and adding shooting, but one familiar issue still hangs over the roster: perimeter defense. Caleb Martin could end up being part of the answer. The 30-year-old small forward brings the kind of defensive tools the Mavericks need on the perimeter, and even with his offense going in fits and starts and a history of injuries, he is expected to get a real chance to carve out playing time.
For a team that wants more resistance against opposing star guards, Martins fit is easy to see alongside Kyrie Irvings return in the backcourt mix. The bigger question is whether that defensive promise turns into a steady role when the games start to matter, because Dallas still has to decide how much trust to place in him on a night-to-night basis. [Read more 🡒]
Mavericks Fans Wont Like This New Kyrie Irving Trade Debate
A speculative three-team trade proposal has started stirring up the usual kind of offseason buzz around Kyrie Irving, and it is the sort of idea Mavericks fans are likely to take personally. The framework would shuffle Irving, Darius Garland, Andrew Wiggins, Davion Mitchell and a future first-round pick across Miami, Dallas and the Clippers, with the concept built more around star-chasing than around what makes sense for each roster.
From Dallas side, the skepticism is pretty straightforward. The front office says it has no intention of moving Irving, who is recovering from injury and expected to return, and one Mavericks insider was blunt in grading the teams side of the proposal poorly because it would not deliver enough help in return. The concern is less about the headline names than the cost, especially when a deal would force the team to part with precious future assets and take on another significant obligation. [Read more 🡒]