The Los Angeles Rams enjoyed quite a few successful rookie seasons out of the 2023 NFL Draft, with Steve Avila, Puka Nacua, Kobie Turner, and Byron Young all emerging as potential long-term playmakers in LA.
While Nacua and Turner stole headlines, Young quietly posted a productive rookie season and locked up a starting job fairly early on. Young finished third among all rookies in total pressures and tied for second in sacks.
Looking at production numbers alone, Young's rookie season feels like it should have been talked about more. He tied Defensive Rookie of the Year Will Anderson Jr. in sacks after all and played on a pretty successful team.
The film...tells a different story.
Not all production is earned the same way, and that was fairly evident in watching Young's film.
Much of Young's production was inflated through several low-quality pressures and sacks. Things like coverage sacks/pressures, unblocked reps, cleanup reps, or schemed-up looks opened up Young to get to the quarterback, instead of earning pressures through a consistent plan.
Four of his eight sacks were "cleanup" sacks, where someone else causes the pressure and forces the quarterback into a rusher. When stretched out to include his pressure numbers, a whopping 25 of his 51 pressures were unblocked or cleanup. That is a ratio that is pretty unsustainable for long-term success. That 49% would have finished 95th(!!) among all pass rushers in the NFL last season.
— AJ Schulte (@AJSchulteFB) June 4, 2024
The numbers back this up. Young had a pass-rush win rate of just 8.7% last season, per Pro Football Focus. For comparison's sake, Will Anderson Jr. had a 16.4% win rate, nearly double. Young's mark was fifth among rookies, but would be 84th(!) in the NFL. Fellow Rams edge rusher Michael Hoecht had an 11.7% win rate.
Young is missing a deep pass-rush plan. He's a great athlete, with good quickness off of the line of scrimmage and some decent speed-to-power, but his ability to string moves together and have a counter planned when his initial rush falters isn't there. Throughout his rookie season, Young's athleticism, rather than technique, gave him production. Far too often, if Young didn't win with his athleticism around the corner, his rush stalled and he was out of the play.
That is ok for a rookie, but it is something that has to improve long-term if Young wants to sustain or even increase his production.
Reading his scouting report from Dane Brugler's The Beast in 2023, here's what it says about Young's weaknesses.
"His frame is limber but undersized and lacks desired length … rudimentary rush setup and doesn’t always have a plan … tends to mistime his swipe moves … hands are aggressive, but they bring more pop than creativity … unimaginative counter measures … physical at the point of attack in the run game but doesn’t own it and struggles to set the edge … will lose leverage in space as a run defender … questionable peripherals and gets locked in on the football … older player and is already 25 … doesn’t have the framework of an every-down player."
If you had told me that somebody wrote that report after his rookie season, I wouldn't have argued with it either. That was perhaps the most frustrating part of Young's film. Even in later games, that pass rush plan wasn't there. Fortunately for Young, the Rams have been good developers and he's still just entering the second year of his career. The book isn't closed on his future, and he has great tools to build off of.
With Aaron Donald retired, Young has to step up and develop, since that dominating presence inside won't free up Young like it did last season. If he can do that, he and Jared Verse can create a dynamic duo for the Rams' defensive front.
