Chase Young is giving the Saints exactly the version of himself Washington spent years waiting for.
Through six games this season, Young has piled up 5.5 sacks and 24 pressures, production that has pushed him inside the NFL’s top 20 in pressures and made him one of the few bright spots on a struggling New Orleans defense. He and Carl Granderson have also quietly become one of the league’s most productive edge-rushing duos, combining for nine sacks.
That’s a far cry from how things played out in Washington. The Commanders used the No. 2 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft on Young after his dominant run at Ohio State made him look like a can’t-miss prospect. But the elite pass-rushing force they projected never fully arrived in Washington.
Young flashed at times there, but he never delivered consistently enough to become the cornerstone edge defender the Commanders expected. In 32 starts, he finished with just 14 sacks. His run defense was strong, but his pass-rush output never reached the level needed to justify a major extension, and the relationship between player and team had already gone sour by the time he was shipped to the San Francisco 49ers in a mid-season 2023 trade for a third-round pick.
Now 27, Young looks like he has finally found his stride. The Saints are benefiting from the version Washington never managed to unlock, and the contrast with the Commanders’ current situation is hard to miss.
Washington has spent years trying to build a pass rush with limited results, and even after pouring over $130 million into the defensive line this offseason, the unit remains in the bottom third of the league in sack rate. Odafe Oweh has contributed, but his two sacks have not matched the contract Washington handed him.
If the Commanders had known this breakout was coming, they might have handled things differently. Instead, Young is collecting sacks in New Orleans while Washington keeps searching for answers.
In Other News...
McLaurin Injury Puts Immediate Pressure On Commanders To Chase Help
Terry McLaurins injury leaves Washington staring at a receiver room that suddenly looks a lot thinner than it did a week ago. The Commanders have built plenty of their offensive identity around McLaurins steadiness and big-play ability, so losing him for the rest of the season changes the conversation for general manager Adam Peters almost immediately.
One name to watch in that search is Brian Thomas Jr., who has reportedly fallen out of favor in Jacksonville. The Jaguars handling of him has only added to the intrigue around a possible trade market, and Washington has to at least be weighing whether to act quickly or ride with what it has while other options emerge. Nothing is done yet, but McLaurins absence has turned receiver help from a nice-to-have into a real roster issue. [Read more 🡒]
Commanders Bye Week Puts Adam Peters Under Pressure Early
The bye week arrived with the Commanders sitting at 1-4-1 after six games, a record that has only sharpened the early scrutiny on the people in charge of building this roster. General manager Adam Peters made sweeping changes in the offseason, and the idea was that Washington would look sturdier and more competitive by now. Instead, the teams issues have been easy to spot, especially up front, where the offensive line has remained a source of frustration and a symbol of how far the roster still has to go.
For Peters and head coach Dan Quinn, the break offers a chance to reset, but it also comes with the kind of pressure that can build quickly when expectations and results are this far apart. The Commanders are already facing questions about whether the offseason work was enough, and the next stretch will matter even more because the frustration around the line is no longer just about one rough week or two. It is becoming part of a broader critique of how Washington put this team together, and whether meaningful changes are coming once the bye is over. [Read more 🡒]
Dan Quinn Gets More Time As Commanders Pressure Keeps Building
Dan Quinn has bought himself a little more time in Washington after the Commanders recent game and the bye week, with the organization not rushing to make any immediate changes. The support appears to be there for now, and the sense around the team is that there is no midseason urgency to make a coaching switch despite the noise that has built around his future.
Still, the pressure has not gone away, only been pushed down the road. Quinns standing beyond this season remains unsettled, and everything now points toward the coming stretch as the real test of where this relationship goes next, with results over the final run set to shape the conversation one way or another. [Read more 🡒]