What Chase Young will have to do to earn a long-term contract

How can the Saints new DE stick around in New Orleans?

The New Orleans Saints signed former #2 overall pick Chase Young to just a 1-year deal for 2024. Going into his 5th year in the NFL while still just 24 years old, Young has always had the talent to be mentioned along side the NFL’s best pass rushers, but his career has gotten off to a rocky start due to a multitude of factors.

Young finished his rookie year with 7.5 sacks while earning defensive rookie of the year and a Pro Bowl nod, but his sophomore season is where things started to go downhill. Young tore his ACL and patellar tendon in Week 10 after getting just 1.5 sacks in his first 10 games that season, and due to complications with his recovery he was only able to play in three games in 2022.

Young bounced back in 2023 however, as he was able to play 16 games and matched his rookie year output of 7.5 sacks, including one in the Super Bowl. This total would have ranked second on the Saints this season.

It could be argued that Chase has not even hit his prime yet, and despite a neck issue that will keep him out until training camp I am not ready to call a guy injury prone after just one bad injury. If Young can maintain and even improve upon the production he has displayed when healthy the Saints should keep him around for a long time.

Young is here on a 1-year “prove it” deal, and if he can prove it by staying healthy and getting more than 7-8 sacks this year, showing that he is the player who was good enough to be taken #2 overall it is likely he will have earned a multi-year contract.

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