His 7.5 sacks and other numbers his rookie season really didn’t warrant the hype he got. Would anyone really have much of an argument with me if I said ‘Montez Sweat had a better year’? Not Young’s fault he has been so over-hyped. I don’t think we have any idea what his career is going to look like in the end. I’ve already said what I think about us making him the #2 pick on that draft.
and that's a legitimate conversation that can be had...
But this is the problem with labeling someone 'generational' or some variation. The fact was that Young has been graded as one of the best pass rushers coming out of college ever. That's not hyperbole, it's supported by stats, as well as talent evaluators. Yes, I understand that the we need to hold our talent evaluators to a certain standard, but we as WFT fans have always been critical of 'missed' draft picks because we're arguing with the advantage of hindsight. Young has barely scratched the surface of his potential career. Even if he's doing things that aren't dominant now, he's barely even started developing. This offseason is the first ACTUAL offseason, as Covid messed everything up last year.
I also understand that Herbert COULD have been the pick at 2, and you sure as hell would love our guys to 'see' Herbert's ability and jump at it, but he was also the 3rd QB off the board in that draft... There are hundreds of examples of teams missing out on draft picks. Look at McLaurin and Curl.
For 2020 and 2021, It looks like Herbert may have been a 'better' pick when we're speaking with the advantage of knowing what's happened over the 18 games those guys have played, but there's still A TON on the table when trying to determine whether Young was, or was not, worth the no. 2 pick.
And the Hype train was driven by the media and the fans.... He did also make a probowl (hollow i know) and win DROY. Could that be hype? Sure... but he also showed many times that he was the best player on the field last year. We don't know what we're asking him to do schematically... I know I saw him in pass coverage last week at times. There's been plenty of evidence that he's not winning 1 on 1 battles in pass rush, but we've also been screaming that we can't stand DEs that pass rush their way out of a play and lose gap control. We know the other team is going to be getting the ball out quickly to try and mitigate our pass rush... how do you try and defend that? If you don't win your initial move, you plant and play gap control, ready to jump up and try to swat the ball. All of these things change the way a defender plays the rush, and it could easily make it look like he's not winning his matchup. I am theorizing here, but I'm also keeping my mind open that I don't know everything about everything so it's hard to truly judge him based on what we've seen.
I want to see him step up, big time, and I want to see him take control of games... but is that on him? Is it on Del Rio? Is it because he's still young and need to continue to develop as a pass rusher? Are we asking him to see ball / kill ball? I don't have an exact answer to that..
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