Playing Week 1 of the regular season against the Jacksonville Jaguars appears unlikely for Commanders defensive end Chase Young, Washington coach Ron Rivera said Friday.
Young is recovering from a torn ACL, and the team wants to be cautious bringing him back due to the severity of the injury.
“Unfortunately, because of the injury, it’s a different injury than (tight end Logan Thomas’), a little more severe, he’s probably going to miss a little bit of time,” Rivera said in a radio interview with 106.7 The Fan. “But again, as he gets better and better and healthier and healthier… Chase and I had a conversation, and I said, ‘Look, don’t push yourself. This is not just about this season, but it’s also about the future. We didn’t draft you to come in and not be here eight, nine, 10, 12 years, whatever it is. We drafted you to be a big part of what we do.'”
The former No. 2 overall pick and NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year is a candidate to be placed on injured reserve to start the season, which would require him to miss the first four games.
Rivera said the Commanders are extra sensitive to pushing players back to daily on-field work following the setbacks wide receiver Curtis Samuel experienced last summer.
“It was a pretty extensive repair, those just take time and patience,” Rivera said of Young. “Last year, we might have pushed Curtis too much. So this year, what we’ve done, we’ve backed up, looked at everybody, and said, ‘Hey, we know there is a timeframe that you say look, OK, this is when we’ll get this guy back.’ But we’ve got to be really careful with this one just because of who he is for us. Shoot, he’s a first-round pick that can be an impact player. He did, showing us what he could do his rookie year.”
Young, 23, was limited to nine starts last season. He has nine sacks, 16 quarterback hits and six forced fumbles in 24 career starts.
–Field Level Media