There were 17 former Commanders in the NFL Final Four, and while we’re whittled down to much less, one of those left is one that DC fans might have mixed feelings about if he hoists the Lombardi on Sunday.
That is, of course, Chase Young, whose oft-maligned tenure here ended in October with the Commanders netting a third-round pick for him…and yeah, he hasn’t done much in San Fran.
Torrey Smith told BMitch & Finlay that Young could be a key to the game for the Niners, as they need him opposite Nick Bosa to get to Patrick Mahomes – but do you, as a DC fan, find yourself somehow rooting for that to happen?
“Maybe I'm in too deep on this, but this is one of those situations where I am more bothered by people that are telling folks how to feel about him, than the people that are saying things about Chase Young,” Grant said. “It is weird to me that people, media and fans alike, are going, ‘he's not here anymore, why do you care?’ They care because they bought his jersey, and were really excited because they were told by us and everyone in town that this guy was gonna be great, and they saw it as a rookie. He looked like he was the real deal, and you don't just stop caring.”
GP likened it to still caring about an ex even though you broke up with them – there’s often still a feeling there, even if it didn’t work out.
“Commanders fans should be interested,” Grant said. “If they see a video where he makes a great play, he gets a pressure or a sack or a sack fumble, that’s awesome. If he takes a play off, like he did semi-frequently here and that goes viral, which happened in the NFC Championship Game, they're gonna feel some type of way about that.”
The pick will be in the very low 100s, so it’s not potentially Earth-shattering, and if you’re still hung up on that compensation, well, so be it – but something is, indeed, better than nothing.
“I would say they look like a winner over the last few weeks – people are starting to come around to maybe this Chase Young thing isn't what it's cracked up to be,” Grant said. “But the notion that everyone should just never talk about him again because he's not here anymore? I just think that's a dumb take.”
“It’s a tough guy take where it's like you don't talk about a player that's injured. Well, you could, you could say that they missed this player who's a starter or a star, but it's one of those things where it's easy to say ‘you don't play for the team anymore, you’re dead to me’ – but that’s dumb,” Danny agreed. “He was a pretty integral part of it – he was printed on tickets and brochures, and was the guy they were they were trying to sell for a number of years to the fan base to re-energize it.”
And yeah, Danny says, it’s not another JAG, it’s the former No. 2 overall pick and 2020 Defensive Rookie of the Year here.
“He was an important player. With all due respect, if, like, the seventh member of their secondary changed teams and was playing in the Super Bowl for the Chiefs, I wouldn't have any kind of feelings that way,” DR said. “But there was this dramatic debate around the number two pick, debate about how great he actually was and the off-field drama, and the weirdness and the letters from in-house columnists about maturity, all the stuff and all the baggage – but yeah, sorry, I'm interested to see what he does after he leaves here for a little while. Eventually I’ll get over it, but not right now.”
“Yeah, I don't know how quickly people are supposed to turn a page and when it's no longer okay to talk about that a player was here,” GP replied, “but I can promise you that a couple of months later in the same football season is not a realistic expectation to ask all the people who bought in and were really excited, and he was the face of their franchise, to just have not any emotions invested in him whatsoever. It's not a very authentic ask.”