Former Ohio State Defensive End Chase Young Expected to Sign With New Orleans Saints

After a late-season run with the San Francisco 49ers, Young hit free-agent waters this offseason and resurfaced Monday by signing a one-year deal with the New Orleans Saints that will pay the former Ohio State defensive end $13 million in 2024.

Done Deal #Saints | @youngchase907 pic.twitter.com/xZLyONqgWs

— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) March 18, 2024

Comp update: Free-agent DE Chase Young plans to sign a one-year, fully guaranteed $13 million deal with the New Orleans Saints, per sources. pic.twitter.com/sXqHvgTo2S

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 18, 2024

Young will join former Ohio State cornerback Marshon Lattimore, linebacker Pete Werner and wide receiver Chris Olave in New Orleans.

Young's NFL career got off to a red-hot start with the Washington Commanders, who selected him with the second overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft. Young racked up 44 tackles with 10 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks in his first season, earning NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year honors and a Pro Bowl appearance. It's his only season starting at least 10 games.

In Week 10 of his second NFL season, Young suffered a severe ACL tear in his right knee that required grafting of his left patellar tendon to repair the ligament. He didn't return until Week 16 in 2022, collecting just five tackles across three games that year.

Young gathered 15 tackles and five sacks in seven games with Washington in 2023 before being dealt to San Francisco midseason. He came off the bench for the 49ers and made 10 tackles in nine regular-season games. He also made eight tackles in three playoff games during the 49ers' run to the Super Bowl, including a sack in the team's loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL's title game.

Before his NFL career, Young might have been the greatest in a long lineage of great Ohio State defensive ends. He set a school record with 16.5 sacks in 2019, won both the Chuck Bednarik Award and Bronko Nagurski Trophy as the best defensive player in college football and was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy.