The New Orleans Saints and their cap space is a tale as old as time, and this year is no different, as they enter the offseason somewhere around $50 million over the salary cap. With that, they also have numerous free agents to attempt to re-sign, and only some will likely be brought back as others will have to walk. The decisions will need to be made in the near future, and while this is not particularly a huge free agent class for the Saints, there are still a few notable ones to cover.
This brings us to arguably the most notable of the list, which is defensive end Chase Young, who the Saints just brought in this past offseason and while he was not perfect, he did have a strong season. He came to the Saints on a one year deal worth $13 million, and now has a chance to either re-up his deal or move on and find money elsewhere, which was the initial intent of the deal it seems anyways.
So with that said, let’s recap his one-year stint with the Saints so far, as well as his career production:
Career Stats
In his career, Chase Young has been very hit or miss in various categories, and while he has been a quality defensive end, he has never been elite like people expected when he came out of the 2020 NFL Draft. His rookie year may be his best when it comes down to it, as he had 7.5 sacks, 44 combined tackles, 12 QB hits, 42 pressures, 10 tackles for loss, 4 forced fumbles with 3 recovered, and 4 pass deflections. He won Defensive Rookie of the Year in that season, as well as getting a Pro Bowl nod. His next two seasons he was injured in some capacity, playing in only 12 total games and only having 1.5 sacks with 31 tackles and 3 pass deflections in those two years.
In 2023 and 2024 he has returned to form somewhat comparatively, with 7.5 sacks and 5.5 sacks respectively. In 2023 he had 74 pressures, 25 total tackles, 7 tackles for loss, 15 QB hits and 2 pass deflections. He followed that up with 66 pressures, 31 total tackles, 8 tackles for loss, 21 QB hits, 3 pass deflections and a forced fumble with the Saints in 2024. Overall, he has had a productive career, but if he could turn more pressures and hits into sacks he would be one of the best defensive ends in the league.
Snap Counts
The snap counts for Chase young have fluctuated quite a bit in all of his seasons, starting off with 770 in his rookie year, then dropping to 477 and 115 in his two injured seasons. In 2023 and 2024 he picked back up again with 735 and 742. Compared to Carl Granderson this season, who is typically the Saints best edge rusher in recent years, he had only 84 less snaps, meaning he kept up with one of the better players on their defense.
2024 season review
Overall, it was a strong season for Chase Young in 2024, coming into a new scheme with multiple other defensive ends vying for snaps and taking away almost 65% of all defensive snaps is impressive. Coming into a new scheme and producing the pressure he was able to is also impressive, and despite the lower sack number, he affected the game in a positive way, and was tied for second on the team in sacks behind only Bryan Bresee.
While he was not perfect, he was solid, and considering how poor the pass rush has been with this team for a few seasons now, I would much prefer solid to bad. The difficulty will be that he was brought in under Dennis Allen and Joe Woods, the prior of whom is now gone and the latter may be gone with a new coaching change, which makes being re-signed slightly less likely.
Future value to Saints
Young’s future value to the Saints is pretty simple, he is a 25 year old pass rusher (nearing 26) who has enormous potential, and flashed it this year with his productivity in many key statistics. For a team that has struggled immensely to hit on draft picks at the defensive end position, retaining one who produced at an above average level for a few years to fill the need is definitely possible.
Stay or go?
In my opinion, it would be beneficial for the Saints to keep Young on a 2-3 year deal that is heavily incentive laden, but has solid guarantees to try and stay ahead of other teams when it comes to price. Will they be able to outbid other teams? Maybe not. But it is worth a shot, as he is not a veteran and still has alot of playing time left in his career, which is exactly what the Saints need to turn things around rather than paying aging players with waning production.
If there is any one player from this free agency class to bring back, it would be Young or potentially Paulson Adebo depending on his recovery.
