The 2021 season was a forgettable one for Washington defensive end Chase Young. The 2020 NFL defensive rookie of the year played in nine games and recorded only 1.5 sacks before tearing his ACL in November.
Much of the drama last offseason was Young skipping voluntary offseason workouts. While that didn’t necessarily correlate to Young’s struggles last season, head coach Ron Rivera would prefer his young star pass-rusher be with the team.
In his chat with reporters Tuesday at the NFL owner’s meetings and the coach discussed Young and his disappointing 2021 season.
“I think for Chase, it was a little bit of an awakening, a little bit of a realization,” Rivera said via Ethan Cadeaux of NBC Sports Washington.
Young has mostly stayed away from the spotlight as he works back from his knee injury. Rivera has been impressed with Young’s recovery and expects him to be present for the offseason.
“In my conversations with him, he said he’s going to be here, and I’m pretty excited to see him here,” Rivera said.
That’s encouraging news for Rivera and Washington. While it is within Young’s rights to skip offseason activities, it is one less distraction for a team that hopes to rebound from a 7-10 season, which saw the defense take steps backward.
One quote that stood out from Rivera on Tuesday and this wasn’t about Young in particular, but the entire team:
“For us, I hope that the realization that we hadn’t arrived has set in and that just showing up is not good enough,” Rivera said.
