National Football League

Chase Young, Montez Sweat set up for Commanders contract battle in 2023

Published May. 10, 2023 2:06 p.m. ET

Chase Young was going to be the face of the Washington defense, maybe for the next decade. He was going to be the team's Nick Bosa, their J.J. Watt, their Myles Garrett — an impossible-to-stop pass rusher that makes everything else work.

Maybe he still will be. Just because the Commanders declined to pick up the fifth-year option on his contract last week doesn't mean they're committing to a future without him.

They're just forcing him to prove his value — and to show whether he's more valuable than his teammate Montez Sweat.

That's really what the Commanders' decision did. It set up a season-long battle between Young and Sweat to see which one will earn a lucrative contract offer to stay in Washington. Both are now scheduled to be free agents next March, and there's just no way the Commanders can afford to pay them both. Not when defensive tackle Jonathan Allen is entering the second year of a four-year, $72 million extension and defensive tackle Daron Payne just signed his own four-year, $90 million deal.

But one of them surely could end up re-signing with Washington for a deal worth in the neighborhood of $20-25 million per year.

"It's one of those things that we want to take care of our own," Commanders coach Ron Rivera explained during the NFL draft. "We want to go out and we want them to play well. And if that's what happens, then we have a really good problem to have."

It would be a great problem for the Commanders if Young and Sweat both had a big season in their contract years. And it's a problem that's probably been building ever since the Commanders drafted a defensive lineman in the first round in four straight drafts, from 2017 through 2020 — Allen (17th overall in 2017), Payne (13th in 2018), Sweat (26th in 2019) and Young (2nd in 2020).

Young — the first pick of the Ron Rivera Era — was supposed to be the crown jewel of that star-studded line. He was an obvious pick at No. 2. He was a dominant pass rusher at Ohio State, with 27 sacks over his final two seasons. And the forecasts that he'd be the NFL's next great defensive player only continued when he had 7.5 sacks as a rookie, went to the Pro Bowl, and was the NFL's Defensive Rookie of the Year.

But greatness never followed. He had just 1.5 sacks in his second season (2021) before tearing his ACL and his patellar tendon in Week 10. His recovery from reconstructive surgery was painfully slow and he didn't return until late last season, on Dec. 24. Just getting on the field was a triumph for Young, but it was clear he wasn't the same. He had no sacks in the three games he played.

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That made the decision to pass on his $17.45 million option for 2024 an easy one. The Commanders couldn't make a bet that big that Young's knee would be OK, or that he would ever be the player he was as a rookie. And they definitely couldn't do it knowing that if they guaranteed Young that money they'd be guaranteeing they couldn't play Sweat.

And right now Sweat seems like the better bet. He has been a solid, but not spectacular, during his four NFL seasons, with 29 sacks. And while that's probably not worthy of a contract worth $20-25 million per season, his production was enough a year ago to convince the Commanders to pick up his $11.5 million option for this season.

If that makes it seem like the Commanders value Sweat a little more than Young … well, they seem OK if Young takes it that way. They see this situation as similar to what happened with Payne, who played last season on his fifth-year option rather than with a contract extension he would've preferred. A motivated Payne had his finest season with 11.5 sacks, proving he was one of the best defensive tackles in the game. He proved his value to the Commanders and they rewarded him with a top-of-the-market deal.

Rivera has insisted the same thing could happen with Young.

"I mean again, we'd love for him to do what we had last year with Daron," Rivera said. "We want to take care of our own and if he comes out and plays well and does the things that he's supposed to and that he's capable of then we'll go from there."

Those aren't the only "ifs," of course, because everything about the Commanders and their future financial decisions is complicated these days. A new ownership group figures to be in charge long before any decision has to be made about Young or Sweat, and it's possible a new coach and general manager could be making those decisions, too. And who knows what any of them will think about the wisdom of adding a third major contract to the defensive line when the team has so many other holes that need to be filled?

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The Commanders do seem to be banking on one of them breaking the bank, though. The other three edge rushers on their roster — Efe Obada, Casey Toohill and James Smith-Williams — are all scheduled to be free agents in 2024, too, and they only combined for eight sacks last season anyway. And the Commanders weren't exactly proactive in the draft looking for future replacements. They waited until the fifth round before taking an edge rusher (Clemson's K.J. Henry) and added another in the seventh (Louisiana's Andre Jones).

So it's most likely Young, Sweat or bust — or at least back to free agency or the draft next March. And that means both players know there's a big deal out there for the taking. Maybe there's even one for both of them if they both have huge seasons, though one would surely have to sign with some other team.

Regardless, that's the kind of competitive, motivational situation the Commanders are happy to see. They would like to see Sweat take the next step and become a double-digit sack producer. They'd love to see Young get healthy and become motivated to prove he's still the player he used to be.

If that happens, they will have dominant bookends around two of the best defensive tackles in football. They'll have a defensive line and a pass rush that most other teams could only envy. And it might be enough to get them back into the playoff chase in the suddenly deep and competitive NFC East.

After that, they'll have time to figure everything else out. Big seasons by either of them could end up costing the Commanders a lot of money and salary cap space. But like Rivera said, it would be "a really good problem to have."

Ralph Vacchiano is the NFC East reporter for FOX Sports, covering the Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.

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