The New Orleans Saints have a whopping 19 pending free agents entering the 2025 NFL offseason, and many of them are players who received one-year contracts to sign with the team in 2024. An example of that would be defensive end Chase Young, who signed a “prove-it” deal with the Saints last offseason and performed well given he was coming off of a neck surgery.
With that contract expired, the Saints will now have competition for his services, and with their cap space still somewhat iffy, they have decisions to make on which free agents they want to keep, and who they want to let depart.
In a recent ESPN article, Matt Bowen discussed the optimal landing spots for each of their top 50 ranked NFL free agents, and Young came in at No. 39, with a best-case scenario waiting for him on the Detroit Lions. Here is the rationale Bowen provided for the choice:
“Here’s a fun one. Detroit coach Dan Campbell could add Young to pair with Aidan Hutchinson off the edge. Young notched 5.5 sacks with the Saints in 2024, and his 46 pressures tied for 11th most in the league. He’d be a low-risk signing with upside.”
There was not a whole lot to go off of from that in terms of understanding the signing or why the Lions would be Young’s best fit, but working alongside Aidan Hutchinson would likely benefit him in the long run, as would working with many other premier defensive ends. But when you look a little deeper, you’ll see that there’s great opportunity for Young in Detroit. The Lions only got five games out of Hutchinson before he went down with a serious leg injury, and he still led the team in sacks last season (7.5). They struggled to find someone who could hold down the defensive line in his absence and Young just might be that guy.
If Young wanted to compete for a Super Bowl title, Detroit could definitely be an option this offseason for him, depending on how he feels about returning to the Saints.