You picking up Chase Young 5th Year Option?

[Schneed10]

I would. The sack stats scare people but they're so up and down, they have a fluky nature to them. Especially in shortened seasons.

In 2021 Young had only 1.5 sacks but he had a pass rush win rate in the top 15 for DEs. You'd like him to be better than that given he was the #2 overall pick but if all we got was the 15th best pass rushing DE that's still worth the $17M option salary. So even though he only got home a few times he still put heat on the QB and disrupted the play. A few things break just slightly differently and he could have gotten 5 sacks in those 9 games.

Last year he was recovering and only played three games, not even worth analyzing the data.

As for the question of how much cap space do you devote to the defensive line, it's a real good question and I think now that we've got Payne and Allen locked up we have to plan on losing one of the DEs. I think I look to trade Sweat before the deadline this year. Right now Chase isn't going to carry max trade value because people will still wonder about the knee recovery. But you could get something back for Montez.

As for whether Ron would trade Montez or Young before the deadline, I don't think he will because he needs to win this year. But you didn't ask me what I thought Ron would do, you asked me what I'd do. I think you give Chase the option year and look to extend him next offseason assuming he looks good, and trade Montez so you don't have a 2025 team made up of nothing but DLs and a bunch of jags.

Long story short, don't sell low on Chase. Extend him, and sell Montez now while his value league-wide is respected.