The Washington Redskins liked Chase Young because he displayed elite traits and they anticipated that his game would continue to grow. It turns out it might not be just his game that keeps growing.
It could be Young himself.
The 6-foot-5 defensive end, selected No. 2 overall in the 2020 NFL draft, said his father, among other members of his family, had a late growth spurt.
Young said his dad, Greg Young, grew from 6-7 his sophomore year in college to 6-10 a year or so after he left.
"It's a possibility I could grow late," Young said Monday via a Zoom conference call. "A lot of people told me my growth plates, there's still some room. It won't affect my game. It's something I'll adapt to, staying flexible. If you're tall, you've got to be a lot more flexible. I'll be the same person whether I'm 6-7 or 6-1. Everything's cool."
Young's mom, Carla, is 6-foot, and his sister, Weslie, is 5-10. But it's Young's father whose growth spurt might foreshadow one in his son.
Young said one player he compares himself to is former NFL defensive end Julius Peppers, who is 6-7.
Young said he watched film of a lot of pass-rushers, from Von Miller to Khalil Mack and the Bosa brothers, Joey and Nick. He'd watch every sack in the NFL from a particular week. Young would focus on the Bosas since both went to Ohio State as well; Young wanted to see how their technique from college translated to the NFL.
But Peppers stood out to him.
"That was a guy that I always just grew up watching, back when he was with the Panthers; when he was with the Bears, I watched him," Young said. "And my uncles, they always used to talk about Julius, my dad -- my dad didn't have an NFL team, but he liked Julius Peppers, so I just grew up always talking about and watching Julius Peppers."
But for Young, the real growth will occur on the field, where Washington expects him to make an immediate impact on a defense that ranked 27th in yards and 30th in points last season. The Redskins haven't had a top-10 defense in points or yards allowed since 2009.
"You get drafted with that second pick, you're gonna be setting high expectations," Young said. "People try to label you with the gold jacket. I just try to mute everything out, man. I try to mute out the negativity; I try to mute out the positivity and just focus on everything that got me here now."
Young will join a front that already had four first-round picks -- tackles Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne, and ends Montez Sweat and Ryan Kerrigan. Young played with Nick Bosa for parts of two years before a core injury ended the latter's season three games into 2018. But Young said he knows the impact of having multiple talented guys up front. It was something he and Bosa discussed often and that would have especially been the case had Bosa not been injured.
"There would've been nothing an offense could've done with us," Young said. "If you slide to Nick, then you let me go off. If you slid to me, then Nick going to go off. I feel like, you know, that's the same thing with the Redskins. ... When you really work as a unit, and you've got all guys clicking on all cylinders, and every guy is a first-rounder ... I don't feel like the offense can really do anything with a defensive line like that."