New Orleans Saints defensive end Chase Young avoided a sophomore slump in his second year with the team and actually had the best year of his career. He quickly became a pillar of the Saints defense and one of the best players on the team.
However, that doesn't mean his teammates should depend on Young to do it all. It is a team game, after all. Luckily, it looks like the rest of the defensive line is aware of that. Yes, they'll be doing what they can to help Young, but they know they have to do their jobs as well.
Defensive tackle Davon Godchaux expressed the same after the Aug. 2 practice. "Chase had a great year last year. A guy we're expecting to blow it up again this year, and we're going to help him any way we can," The nose tackle said to the media. "But y'know, it takes everybody. It takes all 11; everybody has a job to do, and if one person doesn't do their job, we all look bad. I appreciate Chase, but we have to do our jobs too."
What could Chase Young's third year in New Orleans look like?
If everyone is doing their jobs, then Chase Young could very well have the same kind of season as last year. Perhaps he'll have an even better season, since this is his second year in Brandon Staley's system. But what could a second season under Staley even look like?
At the least, it has to look something like last season, which saw him reach double-digit sacks (10) for the first time in his career. But in all likelihood, if he plays all 17 games (he only played in 12 last year), he's bound to have another career year. Health has always been the question surrounding him, and if he can give a good answer, then that will really set the tone in New Orleans this year.
It gets even better when you remember that he's only 27 years old heading into the 2026 season. That indicates that he's only just gotten to the prime of his career and that we probably haven't seen anything yet.
The padded practices should give us a sense of what his third year as a Saint could be like, but we won't really know until the season kicks off on Sep. 13 in Detroit. Thankfully that's just over a month away.
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