PicoBlog

Over the last few weeks I’ve noticed a narrative emerging among some Washington Commanders fans that defensive end Chase Young is actually hurting the defense. While he’s been generating consistent pressure, the narrative suggests that he’s freelancing to do it and that in turn is hurting the integrity of the defense by getting in the way of other rushers or losing contain of the quarterback within the pocket. While this may have been true back in Young’s second season in the NFL in 2021, and I must point out Young was definitely not the only defensive lineman guilty of that fault during that season, it’s not the case for Young this year. 

I’m guessing some of that narrative has come from Young using a lot more power rushes and working inside far more often than we’re used to seeing. I think there’s a bit of a misconception that if he’s not rushing outside, then he’s risking losing contain on the quarterback and giving them a lane to escape to the edge. So let’s break down some of those inside rushes. 

Here are three of Young’s inside rushes that all resulted in pressure on the quarterback. The first play of the clip sees Young initially work up the field but then showing a slight stutter before darting inside. Young does a great job noticing the left tackle is oversetting to the edge, likely to try and prevent Young beating him for speed. That leaves him vulnerable to the inside rush and Young looks to take advantage. He darts inside and closes quickly on quarterback Justin Fields, who has to speed up his process and hurriedly get rid of the ball. Fields completes the pass but the play occurred on third down and the receiver was tackled short of the first down marker, meaning the Bears had to settle for a field goal. 

The second play is very similar with Young again exploiting that inside shoulder of the left tackle and this time he impacts Fields even more. Fields was trying to wait for a route to develop down the field and didn’t have a shorter route to quickly dump the ball off to. Fields tried to bail out of the pocket but Young closed too quickly and Fields resorts to throwing the ball away while being tackled, getting away with what should have been an intentional grounding call. 

On the third play of the clip we see another inside move by Young, beating the left tackle once more as he quickly generates pressure on Fields. This time Fields is able to slide to his left to avoid the initial rush from Young. Obviously in an ideal world, Young brings him down for the sack there and I think this is where some people think he might be losing contain. But if you see how the rest of the play works out, you’ll see why this rush isn’t really an issue for Washington’s defense. By generating that pressure so quickly and forcing Fields to move off the spot, Young effectively takes away half the field for the quarterback by forcing him to roll out to his left. 

Despite escaping the pressure from Young, his defensive linemates are following up. With Fields now scrambling, the offensive line no longer know where the player they’re meant to block is, which gives the defensive lineman a huge advantage in shedding their blocks and pursuing the quarterback. Allen and Sweat close in quickly and Fields is forced to once again throw the ball away to avoid being sacked. 

Contain wasn’t lost on any of these rushes and Young wasn’t “being selfish” or “playing for that big contract” by rushing inside. It was the most effective way for him to get to the quarterback and generate pressure in each situation. Some might argue he got in Allen’s way on the first play of that clip, but Young got to the gap first, so he had every right to take it. Allen could have also worked inside and given the huge gap between himself and Payne in the middle of the line, perhaps he should have if they were truly looking to keep contain. In reality though, Young got there first and was right to do it. Allen got there a second later and was in position to adjust and contain the edge had he needed to. 

I’ve seen some fans go as far as suggesting Young is exclusively rushing inside now because he just wants to get sacks for a big contract. While it's true that Young is rushing inside far more frequently than he used to, this is a good thing. Young’s rushes were far too predictable in his early years and this season he’s clearly put in the work to diversify his rush plan, which has seen him be far more consistent in his pressure generation. But to say he’s exclusively rushing inside is also false. 

Here are two plays from that Bears game of Young attacking the outside shoulder of the left tackle and still generating pressure. On the first play of the clip, Young sells a stutter step inside and then attempts to burst to the edge. He gets the left tackle to open his hips to the sideline as he engages, which gives the tackle a weak outside shoulder and enables Young to turn the corner and rip through as he closes in on the quarterback. The pressure he generates again forces Fields off the spot and he steps up in the pocket to avoid the rush. 

Now you might question if Young lost contain here because Fields was able to step up past Young and then escape out of the pocket to Young’s side of the field. But Young is the edge rusher and was able to generate pressure off the edge, forcing the quarterback off his spot, that is a good thing. The quarterback was able to then escape the pocket because both defensive tackles ended up on the opposite side of the line, leaving a significant gap for Fields to step up into and escape out of. That’s on the defensive tackles rather than Young, who again did a good job here. 

On the second play of the clip, Young rushes outside as part of a blitz scheme. He has to attack the edge because linebacker Cody Barton is blitzing in the B gap between the left guard and left tackle. Young willingly accepts that assignment as part of the defensive call and gets into the tackle quickly, driving him back into the quarterback and generating yet another pressure that forces Fields to throw the ball away. 

How anyone can look at these plays and suggest Young is having a negative impact on the team is beyond me, but for good measure, I’ll throw in another clip of Young keeping contain while still generating pressure. 

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