The New Orleans Saints\u2019 decision to ink DE Chase Young to a three-year, $51 million contract extension with $33 million guaranteed drew heavy criticism this offseason. Tired of the \u201cbust\u201d label, the former No. 2 overall pick responded with a career year.<\/p>\n
After missing the first five games of the season with a calf injury, Young recorded the first double-digit sack season of his career with 10 and led the team with 49 total pressures in just 12 appearances\u201410 more than Carl Granderson, who finished second with 39 pressures in 17 games. He also finished the year with 38 total tackles (22 solo), 29 stops, 11 tackles for loss, four passes defended, two forced fumbles, three fumble recoveries, a defensive touchdown and a career-high 86.3 pass rush grade from Pro Football Focus.<\/p>\n
With both Young and Cam Jordan (10.5) reaching double-digit sacks, the Saints became one of just three teams this season to feature a 10-sack duo, joining the Houston Texans and Detroit Lions. It marked the first time a Saints duo reached that milestone since Jordan and Junior Galette in 2013.<\/p>\n
Former Saints QB Luke McCown put into perspective the growth we could still see from Young in the future:<\/p>\n
New Orleans has found a leader in Young to build their pass rush around as Cam Jordan\u2019s future still remains uncertain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New Orleans Saints\u2019 decision to ink DE Chase Young to a three-year, $51 million contract extension with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[7,896,55,65685,84861,18637,401,2588,2572,2571,6,397],"class_list":{"0":"post-664021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-saints","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-new-orleans","10":"tag-new-orleans-saints","11":"tag-new-orleans-saints-analysis","12":"tag-new-orleans-saints-player-review","13":"tag-new-orleans-saints-depth-chart","14":"tag-new-orleans-saints-news","15":"tag-new-orleans-saints-roster","16":"tag-neworleans","17":"tag-neworleanssaints","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-saints"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115860084327532447","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}