How unreal are expectations for Ohio State pass rusher Chase Young?
If the Redskins select him second overall, as expected Thursday night, 106.7 The Fan's Danny Rouhier says in order to justify not trading the pick to acquire more draft capital, that Young will need to be the next Reggie White.
"In terms of numbers – sacks, pressures, hits – what type of tangible, statistical, visible impact does he have to have for you to feel really good?" Rouhier's co-host, Grant Paulsen, asked after citing Bradley Chubb's 12-sack, 60-tackle rookie season with Denver as a solid benchmark for Young.
"I'd feel great after one year and 12 sacks. There's no doubt about that," Paulsen noted. "Some sacks can be more important than others, but that would be a really impressive, huge season that makes you think, 'Wow. We're on a track to this guy being special.'
"What do you need to get out of Young to feel like this was the right decision?"
"To me, he needs to be Reggie White," Rouhier replied. "To me he needs to be an instantaneous (gold jacket)..."
"That's so unfair," said Paulsen.
"This is my point," added Rouhier. "The expectations are so unrealistic for the best prospect."
For all you youngsters out there, Reggie White is the greatest pass rusher to ever live and was the previous all-time sacks leader, amassing 198 over 15 NFL seasons, a record Bruce Smith would go on to break during his 2003 campaign with the Redskins (his 19th season in the league).
"But can't you, as a smart person, just recalibrate," Paulsen said, "and say, 'I know he's not gonna be Reggie White. He could be great and that helps, too.' Because you don't know that they could have gotten some awesome offer back anyway."
"This is all true. I guess we'll never know, unless there's a book written or there's a 30-for-30, or an ESPN documentary in 15, 20 years after the guy's playing career is done," said Rouhier. "But to justify all of this, to justify all the Redskins fans having their jerseys pre-picked out, and the all the arguments with me against math, and data and science, and best value and best practice on Twitter, he needs to be Reggie White."
"He needs to have 13 sacks, 100 combined tackles as a rookie, forced fumbles and take this defense from an also-ran into a top-10 unit," he said. "Because all the things that we're hearing about how great he is, and by transitivity, it'll make everybody else great. I'm told that pass coverage no longer matters because of how superfluous this guy's rushing skills are.
"He's going to be so good, he makes everybody around him a Pro Bowler and he goes on to a Hall of Famer career. Otherwise, I'm going to be pining for a left tackle, wide receiver, cornerback, and anything else they could have gotten potentially in a trade had they done their job and sort of built up that marketplace for him."
"So the expectations, to me, are already unfair for a guy that I think is gonna be probably a 10-sack player," Rouhier continued. "They're gonna justify the draft pick, and just trot him out there and have him get up after the quarterback and, you know, the Redskins will be okay. That's kind of how I see this going."
