Getty The Rams defense celebrate a defensive stop on November 13, 2022.
Before Thursday, November 17, the Los Angeles Rams were set to reunite with a past starter on the New Orleans Saints side.
But that meeting with a former $3 million linebacker who eventually started alongside Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey, Ernest Jones and others on the Rams defense won’t happen, per ESPN NFL insider Field Yates.
Former starting inside linebacker Kenny Young was released by the Saints Thursday afternoon in a move that involved the Rams’ future Week 11 opponent adding someone to their own secondary.
The Saints have signed CB Isaac Yiadom to their practice squad and released LB Kenny Young.
Young Was Starter Before Significant Trade
Young once arrived to the league as a fourth rounder in 2018 to the Baltimore Ravens, who gave him an entry level four-year, $3,099,904 deal.
But for Ram fans who recall the name, Young went from starter on a loaded Rams defense to being involved in a move that eventually cleared the way for the franchise to bring in Von Miller.
Young managed to squeeze in seven starts in the 2021 season before the Rams went on their Vince Lombardi Trophy run. As a Ram, he went on to snatch 46 total tackles including 27 solo stops with a career-tying six stops behind the line of scrimmage.
The 6-foot-1, 234-pound Young delivered two of his best outings inside SoFi Stadium in Week 1 against the Chicago Bears and Week 3 with Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in town — collecting 10 tackles in both contests. Young also added one sack of Brady in the 34-24 home victory.
Linebacker Kenny Young had 10 tackles, 1 sack and 3 TFL against the Brady led Bucs in 2021. Young was later traded to Denver but certainly deserves a ring for helping our Rams midway through 2021 championship season. I enjoyed Young’s explosiveness at the LB spot
Young went on to play in four more games with the Rams and went 3-1 during that stretch. But his final game with the franchise he played the 2020 and ’21 seasons with was on October 24, 2021 against Jared Goff and the Detroit Lions. Young finished with seven tackles and one QB hit of Goff while getting one more sack. The Rams eventually sent him to the Denver Broncos in exchange for some late round picks.
The Rams have agreed to send LB Kenny Young + a 2024 7th-round pick to the Broncos in exchange for a 2024 6th-round pick.
Then, before the 2021 NFL trade deadline, the Rams pulled off the blockbuster move to lure in Miller to go on their run to the Super Bowl.
Young Wasn’t ‘Cool’ With One Part of Rams to Broncos Trade
When Young was sent to the Rocky Mountains, he revealed the part that disappointed him: The financial aspect.
“(The Rams told me) it had nothing to do with my on-the-field ability,” Young said per Kyle Newman of the Denver Post back October 27, 2021. “I was playing well, and the way the cap was structured, they needed to take the money off my deal to give (it) to guys in other areas and up-and-comers. It was about finances…I’m not cool with it, but I have to respect it.”
Young managed to play in six games with the Broncos. His best statistical game was a 9-tackle day against the Kansas City Chiefs in the 22-9 loss on December 5. The former UCLA linebacker was eventually ruled inactive for the next four games due to a concussion.
He would then bounce around with three different NFL stops: The Las Vegas Raiders, the Buccaneers and then the Saints — all in that order.
Young, though, was cut by the Raiders on August 18 during the preseason. He made his way to the Bucs but was released on October 10.
Had he stuck around the Saints, Sunday would’ve marked his first game against the Rams since the trade.