Ohio State Buckeyes Legend Gets Shredded Over Enormous NFL Contract

Former Ohio State Buckeyes star Chase Young has not exactly panned out like many expected on the NFL level, failing to live up to his billing as the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.

That's not to say that Young has been terrible. Far from it. He is still an impactful player and is coming off of a 2024 campaign in which he registered 31 tackles, 5.5 sacks and 21 quarterback hits with the New Orleans Saints. That was apparently enough for the Saints to hand the 26-year-old a three-year, $51 million contract to remain in the Bayou.

But evidently, Bleacher Report's Kristopher Knox seems to think New Orleans made a massive mistake with Young, calling his deal the second-biggest contract blunder of the NFL offseason.

"The Saints entered free agency with several notable needs and a cap deficit. Though quarterback Derek Carr hadn't retired yet, New Orleans had a new head coach in Kellen Moore and knew it was approaching some semblance of a rebuild. Given Young's injury history and the state of the Saints franchise, his extension represented a very unnecessary risk," Knox wrote.

This certainly isn't the first time we have heard the cash-strapped Saints get lambasted for the deal they handed Young, and based on the fact that he has never come close to registering double-digit sacks in a single season (he topped out at 7.5 twice), the backlash is understandable.

That being said, Young clearly was a disruptive force in 2024 as evidenced by how many times he was getting into opposing backfields and pressuring quarterbacks. He also still has room to grow.

Young was a menace at Ohio State, racking up 27 sacks over the course of his final two seasons with the Buckeyes. His best year came in 2019, when he rattled off 46 tackles, 21 tackles for loss and 16.5 sacks, the last of which led the country. He even finished fourth in Heisman Trophy voting that season.