The New Orleans Saints have desperately needed an influx of talent along the defensive line for a few seasons now, and despite their attempts to fix that through the draft vis-à-vis the selections of Payton Turner and Isaiah Foskey, it has not panned out how they expected.
In the 2024 offseason, they tried at a different method of adding talent, signing defensive end Chase Young to a one-year deal. With him coming off a neck injury and requiring surgery to get back to where he needed to be, the Saints took the shot on him with a short contract.
With the 2025 offseason nearly upon us, we will first take the opportunity to look back at the 2024 signings and grade them based on their first season with the black and gold. So without further ado, we begin with arguably their biggest signing of the offseason.
Free agent contract
Young was signed by the Saints to a 1-year, $13 million deal last offseason, with $12.55 million being guaranteed. This contract was the 26th largest contract at his position among the 244 signed defensive ends/edges in 2024. His cap hit did get split partially into 2025 however, with his 2024 cap number at $3,912,000 and his 2025 cap number at $9,088,000.
The 2025 number was via a prorated signing bonus, so if Young were to leave this offseason, it would count towards the dead cap figure. If he were to return on a new contract it would be added onto that new deal, and would be able to be spread out further over the life of that instead.
Snap counts
When it comes to career snap counts for Chase Young, he has been utilized pretty heavily. Here is his defensive snap rate for each season of his career, only counting games he played in:
- 2020: 78% (770)
- 2021: 80% (477)
- 2022: 65% (115)
- 2023: WAS 84% (407), SF 58% (328)
- 2024: 63% (742)
As you can see, he has always been a pretty heavily played pass rusher when on the field, but years like 2022 stand out where he missed all but three games, and 2021 where he played in nine.
2024 season review
2024 was a relatively solid season for Young, and while it was not as strong as his rookie season in 2020, he was making a positive impact all season long. This was the first season of his career where he has played every game, and in that span had 5.5 sacks, 31 total tackles (21 solo, 10 assisted), 8 tackles for loss, 21 QB hits, 66 pressures, 3 pass deflections and a forced fumble.
Overall he performed better in the second half of the season as he grew more accustomed to the system. While the Saints are looking for a new head coach entering 2025, if he were to return it would likely benefit him to get a jump start and have a full offseason process.
Report card grade
Grading this signing is a little difficult, as on one hand Young was enormously impactful in many key statistics, but the sack number being only 5.5 is slightly underwhelming. This defense needs someone who can get the quarterback on the ground more than anything at the moment, and despite Young being exceptional at getting into the pocket, he had a tough time finishing the rep fast enough to get the quarterback down.
Regardless, for a one-year rental and only 13 million dollars spent, this was a strong season for Young. If he could be brought back for that range on multiple years it would be a positive, and that’s all you could ask for.
Signing Grade: B+
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