There wasn’t really a good word to be said about the 3-year, $51 million contract the New Orleans Saints gave Chase Young before the 2025 season.
Almost across the board, it was singled out as one of the NFL’s worst free agent signings. Young, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft by the Washington Commanders, was getting double-digit sack money from the Saints but was yet to deliver a double-digit sack season in his first 5 years in the league.
If money truly changes a man, it seemed to change Young for the better.
After securing the first big-time payday of his career, Young delivered the best season of his career with 10.0 sacks in just 12 games for the Saints, who were one of the NFL’s most-improved teams down the stretch under rookie head coach Kellen Moore.
Now, Young’s deal is being singled out as one of the NFL’s “Best Free Agent Signings” of the 2025 cycle by PFF’s Bradley Locker.
It’s a far cry from when Young’s time with the Commanders ended midway through the 2023 season as one of the biggest busts in franchise history.
“The Saints made a rarely large move when they retained Young on a three-year, $51 million contract to prevent him from leaving,” Locker wrote. “In turn, Young absolutely dominated when on the field with an 86.3 PFF pass-rush grade and a 15.2% pass-rush win rate. The former No. 2 overall pick appears to have settled into form with the Saints.”
Young Part of Incredible Run of Awful Picks
Young was part of an incredible run of first round picks who didn’t pan out for the Commanders — 6 picks in 5 years from 2019 to 2023 that were no longer on their roster by the end of the 2024 season.
The biggest bust of the bunch was Young, who started his career off like a rocket ship with his previous career high 7.5 sacks as a rookie on the way to being named NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year and helping lead the Commanders to the playoffs.
Following a torn ACL suffered in Week 10 of the 2021 regular season, Young missed 22 of the next 25 regular-season games, including all but 3 games in 2022 — a 2-season stretch in which he had just 1.5 sacks.
Young revamped his career in 2023 with 7.5 sacks while playing for both the Commanders and the San Francisco 49ers after a midseason trade and was a role player as the 49ers made it to the Super Bowl.
Rebooted Career With New Orleans Saints
Young took the momentum from his time with the 49ers and parlayed that into a 1-year, $13 million contract with the Saints in 2024, when he played in every regular-season-game for the first time in his career and finished with 5.5 sacks, 8 TFL and 21 QB hits.
ESPN’s Ben Solak listed Young among his top Pro Bowl snubs in 2025, with Solak proposing Young should have been one of the picks at edge rusher in place of Los Angeles Rams edge rusher Byron Young.
“Byron Young is without question the better run defender,” Solak wrote on December 23. “Chase Young plays an upfield game that takes him out of run defense, while Byron is one of the more impactful edge rushers behind the line of scrimmage. But Chase has one of the fastest get-offs, time-to-pressure and quick pressure rates of all NFL pass rushers … also the lone high-impact player in the Saints’ pass rush portfolio.”
All-Time Commanders Draft Bust Receives Unusual Label