It’s finally here. We finally have a date for Washington Commanders defensive end Chase Young’s return to practice. As expected, Young will return to practice Wednesday, and his 21-day clock will begin as head coach Ron Rivera confirmed Monday.
“We’re gonna start on Wednesday with him,” Rivera said. “We’ll start his clock.”
The clock is referring to Young’s current status on the reserve/PUP list. The team has 21 days from the moment Young returns to practice to either activate him, or he’ll miss the remainder of the season.
Rivera laid out Washington’s plan with Young.
“He had a final good visit with Doc [Dr. James Andrews],” Rivera said. He was very, very pleased. Chase has been working out with the strength and conditioning group the last few days, and he’ll continue right into Wednesday, where he’ll start with positional drills. By doing so, he’ll get an opportunity to be involved in all of the walkthroughs and installation periods that we have, and then we’ll move him to the side once we get through the positional drills. He’ll work on the side, and then we’ll see how he is after the day and then going into the next day, and that’ll dictate what our next step is in terms of where he goes from there.”
Young rejoins Washington at the perfect time. The Commanders have won three games in a row and have a difficult road over the next two weeks with the top two teams in the NFC in Minnesota and Philadelphia. It remains to be seen when Young will see his first action, but running back Brian Robinson Jr. played the following week upon his activation. Of course, it’s important to note these are entirely different injuries and timelines. Young had major reconstructive surgery.
Rivera cautioned against expecting too much too soon.
“Yeah, just because, again, he’s going to have to get back into the mode,” he said. “He’s going to have to get back into condition. I mean, believe me, playing football is completely different from rehabbing, obviously. And the more reps he can get on the practice field prior to stepping onto the game field would be very beneficial to him.”
Washington’s defensive line is playing as well as any in the NFL. Young’s presence, at least initially in a limited role, should bolster an elite unit.
