2023 Season

[thesack12]

Saints are stealing Niners' passing game coordinator Klint Kubiak to be their OC. Too bad. Though Kyle is the OC, and frankly, I didn't love some of the dropback passing stuff they did this year...

Kubiak wasn't all that great as Minnesota's OC. We'll see how he does in Nawlins.

As for what it means for the 49ers, its hard to argue that he didn't have a + impact as the 9ers passing game coordinator. But with Shanahan being so hands with the intricacies of everything about the offense, who knows how much influence Kubiak actually had.

[thesack12]

There is a lot of recent chatter out there discussing Chase Young's lack of effort last week. Specifically on the Gibbs TD run, which Young does a slow jog towards the sideline then shows shockingly little desire to try and make the tackle after Gibbs cuts back in front of him.

While that was the most egregious display of Young's low effort, people are talking about about several other plays where Chase seems disinterested. Some of these can be seen from the NFL released highlight video of the game on Youtube. Focus on Chase while he's on the field, and its not hard to question his motor on several plays. This is just from watching a commercially released highlight video, I wonder what the all 22 looked like.

Chase Young is popping on film, for all the wrong reasons.

This is a guy that was playing in a conference championship game with a Super Bowl berth on the line. On top of that, this guy is playing for a contract. What more motivation would anybody need?

Maybe its just a "piling on" type situation since Young has been so disappointing. Still having said that, when you have underwhelmed to the degree that Young has, you can't be out there just going through the motions and get the benefit of the doubt. Also, I think its telling that the team publicly addressed the situation.

We still need him for 1 more game. I sure as hell hope this has been some kind of a wake up call for him, and he has a strong game in the Super Bowl. At this point, there is no indication that he will have a good game, so all we have is hope.

In any event, I am completely out on resigning him. Even if he has a fumble recovery, 3 sacks, 2 pass deflections, and a tackle for loss next Sunday I wouldn't look to resign him. He's a JAG for the vast majority of the time, and if effort and motor concerns are surfacing now, what will that look like AFTER he gets paid?

[RIPskaterdude]

Saints are stealing Niners' passing game coordinator Klint Kubiak to be their OC. Too bad. Though Kyle is the OC, and frankly, I didn't love some of the dropback passing stuff they did this year...

I'd love to see Griese get promoted to passing game coordinator. Also had no idea there were two Kubiaks on the team

[Harry Palmer]

There is a lot of recent chatter out there discussing Chase Young's lack of effort last week. Specifically on the Gibbs TD run, which Young does a slow jog towards the sideline then shows shockingly little desire to try and make the tackle after Gibbs cuts back in front of him.

While that was the most egregious display of Young's low effort, people are talking about about several other plays where Chase seems disinterested. Some of these can be seen from the NFL released highlight video of the game on Youtube. Focus on Chase while he's on the field, and its not hard to question his motor on several plays. This is just from watching a commercially released highlight video, I wonder what the all 22 looked like.

Chase Young is popping on film, for all the wrong reasons.

This is a guy that was playing in a conference championship game with a Super Bowl berth on the line. On top of that, this guy is playing for a contract. What more motivation would anybody need?

Maybe its just a "piling on" type situation since Young has been so disappointing. Still having said that, when you have underwhelmed to the degree that Young has, you can't be out there just going through the motions and get the benefit of the doubt. Also, I think its telling that the team publicly addressed the situation.

We still need him for 1 more game. I sure as hell hope this has been some kind of a wake up call for him, and he has a strong game in the Super Bowl. At this point, there is no indication that he will have a good game, so all we have is hope.

In any event, I am completely out on resigning him. Even if he has a fumble recovery, 3 sacks, 2 pass deflections, and a tackle for loss next Sunday I wouldn't look to resign him. He's a JAG for the vast majority of the time, and if effort and motor concerns are surfacing now, what will that look like AFTER he gets paid?

He should certainly be motivated to put something better on display after being pantsed nationally for his stroll last game. Wonder if Andy Reid is thinking the same, might play him to be over aggressive.

[wco81]

I think Young's best chance to get a huge contract would have been to get an extension with the Commanders.

If you look at all the big contracts given to defensive players, they've all been extensions with the teams which drafted them -- the Watt brothers, the Bosa brothers, Donald, Chris Jones, etc.

We haven't seen a big contract given to a defensive player in free agency. If the team that drafted the player is letting him walk, that means that team and all the other NFL teams have concluded that they're not worthy of a 9-figure deal.

So that may be what Young is thinking.

On pure talent alone, he will play for years, kind of like Clowney, who's bounced around the league after entering on huge set of expectations. But Clowney just had one of his best seasons at age 30 for the Ravens.

[thesack12]

I think Young's best chance to get a huge contract would have been to get an extension with the Commanders.

If you look at all the big contracts given to defensive players, they've all been extensions with the teams which drafted them -- the Watt brothers, the Bosa brothers, Donald, Chris Jones, etc.

We haven't seen a big contract given to a defensive player in free agency. If the team that drafted the player is letting him walk, that means that team and all the other NFL teams have concluded that they're not worthy of a 9-figure deal.

So that may be what Young is thinking.

On pure talent alone, he will play for years, kind of like Clowney, who's bounced around the league after entering on huge set of expectations. But Clowney just had one of his best seasons at age 30 for the Ravens.

Nah, there have been plenty of guys that got a big 2nd contract from teams that didn't draft them.

Deforest Buckner, Jalen Ramsey, Khalil Mack, Jamal Adams, Bradley Chubb, Montez Sweat all immediately come to mind as guys that were traded while on rookie contracts and given big extensions after getting traded.

As for true free agent signings we can look at 2 examples of big contracts being given out right here with the 49ers in Javon Hargrave and Mooney Ward.

Now if you are strictly limiting it to 9 figure contracts, sure the list is very short of guys that didn't get those from the teams that drafted them. However, the list of those types of contracts in of themselves for defensive players is very short. Those contracts are generally only given to the truly elite players, and of course teams aren't usually going to let legit elite players out of their buildings.

Besides, I'm not sure what your point about Chase Young is. Are you saying that Young is figuring he's not going to get a big extension just because Washington traded him, and therefore has decided not to go full throttle out there on the field? If that is even remotely true, then that makes me want him even less than before.

[wco81]

Young should be trying to get numbers and put out good film on his current play.

Instead he's being blocked by WRs.

[CrimsonCrew]

Young should be trying to get numbers and put out good film on his current play.

Instead he's being blocked by WRs.

I'd have to take a closer look at Young's pass rushing, but I certainly didn't see him making many plays in that area. That said, the run game probably was not him as much as it seems on the surface. Sure, a DE shouldn't get blocked by a WR, but the DE's responsibility when a guard pulls is often to move down the LOS trailing the puller. Once the WR crashes down to block the DE, edge contain responsibility should fall on either a CB or S who was responsible for that WR. It sure seemed like our DBs weren't holding up the way they should be. We also had some LBs taking poor angles or filling in the wrong holes occasionally.

[Jikkle]

Watch on YouTube

Saw this today and since Young is being talked about now figured it was worth posting.

[thesack12]

I like how he tries to rationalize the infamous play claiming Young is playing team defense and trying to take alternate angles. Yeah that all sounds good, but he neglects to explain why Young literally decelerates when jogging over to the ball carrier. He also tries to rationalize Young not worrying about the ball carrier breaking free because he "expects someone else to make the tackle." Ok buddy. Seeing as how the team publicly addressed lack of effort, I think its safe to say there was a problem.

Most of the plays the guys breaks down are running plays, and Young did make a couple solid plays there. However, its worth noting a couple of the plays mentioned Young was matched up on a TE and another was getting blocked by a WR. One of the plays he credits Young for, dude literally gets uprooted on a block to the point one of his feet goes flying off the turf. One play he highlights results in the RB breaking a tackle attempt on Young. Another play where Young spills to the middle to play the inside run, yet the RB's pads are square to the sideline during the handoff. So it was obvious he was going to bounce that to the outside. On that play he also talks about how it was just a failure by the defense overall, since the DL was lined up shifted to the left since the Lions aligned heavy to that side. Which is valid, however based on that pre snap alignment Young has got to be aware that he is the only guy on the front level of the defense that can account for the weak side, so why is he over committing to the inside leaving literally nobody available for outside contain? Keeping in mind this was a 3rd & 13 play, if the ball carrier wants to run into the teeth of the defense let him but you can't leave the outside completely unmanned, especially in a 3rd & long situation. No awareness or recognition by Young on that play, which is why there are a lot of people questioning what he was doing on that play.

On the passing plays, most of which aren't discussed nearly as in depth as the running plays, one play shown Young facing a double team which he did not beat. If he's highlighting that, it likely means that this was the only time he drew a double team and if drawing a double team is included as a "highlight" of your pass rush prowess then you probably aren't making much of an impact as a pass rusher. Then after questioning why he only got credited with 1 pressure he shows a play where Young "beat" his man but he got guided upfield by the OT and arced around and behind the QB which OT's are trained to do, so I don't know how much of a "win" that rep was. Another play he shows, Armstead and Hargrave both beat their man collapsing the pocket on the inside, and he credits Young for Goff not rolling to his side of the field. Another play he credits Young for making Goff break the pocket, yet you can see Bosa break free right up the gut which the reason why Goff had to get off platform.

I will say that slice of tape does show Young making a few plays in the run game. However, to me it seems like that guy is reaching a bit to try and prop up Chase Young. I don't know maybe its just me and I'm just jaded on Chase Young.

[CrimsonCrew]

This is kind of hilarious. I plugged a question about Clelin Ferrell's injury into this new AI search provider to see if I could get a better result, and the first "source" it directed me to was my own post in this forum. Ha! I feel like a little bit of a celebrity.

https://www.perplexity.ai/search/was-clelin-ferrells-gjEpmXSOS4aGZ0XeWKI5yQ?s=u

[wco81]

Just heard on a podcast that 49ers have been complaining too much or maybe something like that is trending on social media.

They supposedly complained about practice field conditions and Bosa accused the Chiefs tackles of holding often.

Apparently the Chiefs are getting to use the Raiders' practice facility. People raised eyebrows because Al Davis had a feud with the Chiefs and the Hunts going back to the AFL days.

But no doubt Mark Davis doesn't want to see the 49ers win.

[Jikkle]

Just heard on a podcast that 49ers have been complaining too much or maybe something like that is trending on social media.

They supposedly complained about practice field conditions and Bosa accused the Chiefs tackles of holding often.

Apparently the Chiefs are getting to use the Raiders' practice facility. People raised eyebrows because Al Davis had a feud with the Chiefs and the Hunts going back to the AFL days.

But no doubt Mark Davis doesn't want to see the 49ers win.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/michaelsilver/article/explaining-49ers-soggy-super-bowl-practice-18650147.php

I don't consider it complaining if the surface has legitimate issues and all signs point to that it does.

It's the league and Goodell that's trying to paint the 9ers as being whiny babies about it and Silver suspects they might have been the ones to leak it in the first place.

As far as Bosa goes he's not the type that complains he's just candid with his answers and I've heard that's why he's a popular interview because he just gives you honest answers.

[CrimsonCrew]

Re: Bosa, I hope it was kind of signaling to the officials to keep an eye on it. He was held on just about every play in the last super bowl, most blatantly on that huge 3rd and 15 conversion. Just our luck that in the last SB we drew an officiating crew that never called OL holding and often called DB holding. Burned us a few times.

[Pattersonca65]

There is a lot of recent chatter out there discussing Chase Young's lack of effort last week. Specifically on the Gibbs TD run, which Young does a slow jog towards the sideline then shows shockingly little desire to try and make the tackle after Gibbs cuts back in front of him.

While that was the most egregious display of Young's low effort, people are talking about about several other plays where Chase seems disinterested. Some of these can be seen from the NFL released highlight video of the game on Youtube. Focus on Chase while he's on the field, and its not hard to question his motor on several plays. This is just from watching a commercially released highlight video, I wonder what the all 22 looked like.

Chase Young is popping on film, for all the wrong reasons.

This is a guy that was playing in a conference championship game with a Super Bowl berth on the line. On top of that, this guy is playing for a contract. What more motivation would anybody need?

Maybe its just a "piling on" type situation since Young has been so disappointing. Still having said that, when you have underwhelmed to the degree that Young has, you can't be out there just going through the motions and get the benefit of the doubt. Also, I think its telling that the team publicly addressed the situation.

We still need him for 1 more game. I sure as hell hope this has been some kind of a wake up call for him, and he has a strong game in the Super Bowl. At this point, there is no indication that he will have a good game, so all we have is hope.

In any event, I am completely out on resigning him. Even if he has a fumble recovery, 3 sacks, 2 pass deflections, and a tackle for loss next Sunday I wouldn't look to resign him. He's a JAG for the vast majority of the time, and if effort and motor concerns are surfacing now, what will that look like AFTER he gets paid?

This is what the Commander's fan site had to say about him right after the trade happened
Who is Chase Young? Who better to answer that question than Bill Horgan of Hogs Haven. Without further ado, let’s find out more about the 49ers newest edge rusher.

1) What’s the most impressive part about Young’s game?
There’s not been much impressive about Young since his rookie season ended.

He has continually struggled to adapt to the NFL since the conclusion of his DROY season in 2020 when he played with explosive enthusiasm.

In college, he was able to dominate through superior athleticism, but as a pro, he’s on the field with his physical equals and is frequently controlled by offensive linemen who have superior technique.

His most common failing in the 9 games he played pre-injury in 2021 was rushing too far upfield and simply being pushed behind the quarterback, losing gap integrity and opening lanes for the QB to throw or simply tuck the ball and run. As recently as the Eagles game in Week 8 this season, he was still doing this; he opened up a lane on a 3rd down rush in the 1st quarter that allowed Jalen Hurts to sprint 7 yards for a first down.

He also freelances frequently, by, for example, rushing inside and attacking the same gap as Jon Allen and making the job really easy for the offensive line. It’s been a puzzling fact that, for the past 3 seasons (‘21-’23) the Washington defense has consistently been more effective when Chase was off the field than when he was on it.

Many people attribute this to CY’s apparent unwillingness or inability to play within the scheme — to follow the mantra of ‘do your job’. The coaches seemed frustrated by his apparent immaturity in 2021 and his failure to play within the scheme in 2023.

After a poor 2021 campaign that ended in a serious injury, and an unhealthy 2022 that saw him limp through 3 games before he was fully ready to return, Chase has played better in 2023, but he has been inconsistent in his play and hasn’t exhibited any of the kind of leadership you would expect from a guy with his draft pedigree.

2) Young had plenty of juice pre-injury. Is he still as good of a pass rusher as his pressure and sack numbers would suggest?
It was clear in the 3 games that he played to close out the ‘22 season that the knee wasn’t right and Chase wasn’t confident in it.


This season has been different; physically, he looks strong and explosive. He certainly hasn’t been a dominating game-wrecker that he was expected to be coming out of college, but he looks to be healthy and confident in the knee.

3) Did Young live up to his lofty draft status as a true #1 edge rusher, who was he always playing second fiddle to Montez Sweat?
Young had a promising start to his career as a rookie, winning DROY honors.

Young never played ‘second fiddle’ to Sweat. CY always had the higher profile and greater expectations, but, since the start of the 2021 season, Young had mostly been out injured (he played 12 games in 2 seasons in ‘21-’22) while Sweat had been mostly healthy (he had a broken jaw, and missed a game when his brother was killed during the season).

This season, with Chase Young healthy, Sweat has been both steadier and more productive, though a big consideration for Washington in its roster planning was that Sweat is 27 and nearer to the end of his productive years than the beginning, while Young is 24 with a lot of upside potential.

Prior to the trade, despite playing one less game, Chase Young had played more snaps (407 for Young; 377 for Sweat). Yet, even though Montez Sweat had played 30 fewer snaps, he was actually out-producing his counterpart. Consider this comparison from Pro Football Reference.

Sweat had more tackles, more QB hits, more tackles for loss, more sacks and more forced fumbles than did Chase Young. In short, Sweat has been healthier than CY and outplayed him in every season except Chase’s rookie season of 2020.

Chase, however, has continued to enjoy a much higher national profile due to his pre-draft evaluations and electric rookie season. NFL fans outside the NFC East probably don’t see Washington play much, and so, outside of the Washington fan base and the division, Young is seen as the top player on Washington’s defense — an impression that is reinforced every time a Washington game is broadcast on TV as the announcers always focus on Young as the team’s defensive star.


To answer your question clearly: no, CY hasn’t lived up to his ‘lofty draft status’ since the end of his rookie season. He has ranged from pedestrian to quite good, but he has not dominated an opponent or wrecked a game in the past three seasons.

4) Were Commanders fans sad to see Young go? What were their feelings on his tenure in Washington?
Washington fans are rarely united on any opinion, and that’s true of CY as well. I’d say about half of the fan base were happy to see the back of Young and about half believe that we will all regret the decision to part ways with him as his career plays out.

One contentious issue was Young’s decision to forgo all voluntary offseason workouts in 2021 (his 2nd year in the league). When he finally showed up for mandatory minicamp, CY flippantly told reporters that he’d been taking care of his money (he’d been shooting some commercials and such). I was among the many fans who felt that since he’d skipped voluntary workouts, there was nothing to complain about as long as he showed up ready to play.

The problem was that he didn’t really do that. In the 9 games he played in 2021 before tearing his ACL, he produced just 1.5 sacks and 4 QB hits. He was constantly being run out of plays (as I mentioned above) and he looked more like a backup than a starter.

To his critics, Young seems immature and lacking in leadership because of things like his on-field freelancing and his offseason business decisions in 2021. Many fans pointed to Young being named a captain in 2021 and the need for him to provide more leadership.

He was NOT named a captain this season — Jonathan Allen and Kendall Fuller were named captains of the defense. This might provide a small insight to how the former 2nd-overall pick was perceived coming into this season.

The half of the fan base that are sad to see him go think the organization gave up on him too soon and for too little compensation. Those fans would say that the team is giving up on him just when his career is about to take off. He’s healthy for the first time since the middle of the 2021 season, and he’s 24 years old. The team should, in the view of that half of the fan base, be building around the guy that was drafted to be the cornerstone of the franchise for the decade of the ‘20s.

One issue that we’d known about for a long time was the fact that the team couldn’t afford to pay both Sweat and Young and that one would go (I don’t think anyone expected the team to trade them both), so the discussion had been long and ongoing, and fan opinions had become deeply entrenched.

I think that what no fan can judge is whether CY wanted to be here. Personally, I don’t think he did. I believe that his relationship with the coaching staff had deteriorated over time, and he was ready to move on.

As a fan base, we lived through an ugly 3 seasons when the front office forced Kirk Cousins to stay when he clearly wanted to leave. San Francisco got a steal when they traded to acquire Trent Williams in 2020 when he clearly wanted to leave (although for very different reasons).

I think the situation between the team and Young was headed in that same direction, but with new owners, rational decision-making seems to have kicked in sooner, and the team sold at a point at which they could get some compensation and a graceful exit for the player. This doesn’t get talked about much, but I suspect it was a driving factor in CY’s ‘forced’ departure from the team — I think he wanted to go and was quite happy to be traded away from a coaching staff that didn’t really believe in him anymore.

In our recent Reacts question, 51 percent of fans said they would have accepted the trade offer from San Francisco, while 49 percent of fans said they would have declined the trade offer.

5) Do you believe, even if he’s a rental, Young is worthy of a 3rd round pick playing alongside Nick Bosa?

I think the 3rd round comp pick was exactly the right compensation for this trade, and I don’t think the Niners can be unhappy about it, however things turn out.

As you guys already know, if CY plays 8 or 9 games and leaves, the 49ers probably end up getting a 2025 3rd round comp pick in return.


If he signs a long-term deal, then that’s probably a ‘win’, though I doubt whether y’all can afford to pay two edge defenders any more than we could have (maybe you can, I don’t know). Because Washington has never tagged Chase, the option is there to tag him and play him or tag him and trade him, and your front office seems savvy enough to figure that out.

Personally, I think SF is the ideal landing spot for Chase Young because of Nick Bosa. They were teammates in college, and Chase seems to defer to Bosa as the ‘big brother’.

On most NFL teams that might’ve traded for a guy like Chase, he would’ve had to come in and be the guy that Washington expected him to be when he was drafted — the big dawg. For the 49ers, he joins a strong defense and an already-good defensive line, and he can, for the first time in his pro career, actually play second-fiddle to a better edge player that he respects from their time together at Ohio State.

My guess is that Chase Young will have both the opportunity and the motivation to be a better teammate and to play within the scheme. As with the Trent Williams trade, I imagine that CY’s performance in San Fran is gonna make Washington’s front office look stupid, but, also like the Trent Williams situation, I don’t think there was any real future together for the player and the Washington coaches/front office. Hopefully, this will give Chase the opportunity to reset his career and get it back on track.

[Pattersonca65]

I think Young's best chance to get a huge contract would have been to get an extension with the Commanders.

If you look at all the big contracts given to defensive players, they've all been extensions with the teams which drafted them -- the Watt brothers, the Bosa brothers, Donald, Chris Jones, etc.

We haven't seen a big contract given to a defensive player in free agency. If the team that drafted the player is letting him walk, that means that team and all the other NFL teams have concluded that they're not worthy of a 9-figure deal.

So that may be what Young is thinking.

On pure talent alone, he will play for years, kind of like Clowney, who's bounced around the league after entering on huge set of expectations. But Clowney just had one of his best seasons at age 30 for the Ravens.

Nah, there have been plenty of guys that got a big 2nd contract from teams that didn't draft them.

Deforest Buckner, Jalen Ramsey, Khalil Mack, Jamal Adams, Bradley Chubb, Montez Sweat all immediately come to mind as guys that were traded while on rookie contracts and given big extensions after getting traded.

As for true free agent signings we can look at 2 examples of big contracts being given out right here with the 49ers in Javon Hargrave and Mooney Ward.

Now if you are strictly limiting it to 9 figure contracts, sure the list is very short of guys that didn't get those from the teams that drafted them. However, the list of those types of contracts in of themselves for defensive players is very short. Those contracts are generally only given to the truly elite players, and of course teams aren't usually going to let legit elite players out of their buildings.

Besides, I'm not sure what your point about Chase Young is. Are you saying that Young is figuring he's not going to get a big extension just because Washington traded him, and therefore has decided not to go full throttle out there on the field? If that is even remotely true, then that makes me want him even less than before.

The great players are never motivated primarily by money. They play out 100% regardless of the contract status. Players that find an extra gear just for a contract I really have to question are worth keeping around.

[CrimsonCrew]

Man, I just managed to delete a pretty lengthy post I was almost done with. Short version: Young hasn't been great, but disappointing high picks are judged more harshly than they should be, especially when they are playing for other teams. Clelin Ferrell was an absolute bust as a top-5 pick, but he's actually a solid base end who is a valuable part of a rotation. Young should be in a role where he is playing 30 snaps a game, mostly rushing the passer, but now he's playing 50+, so we're going to see more mistakes.

The Ferrell injury sucks, as he isn't the player against the run that Ferrell is, and he's also worse against the pass as he's not fresh. But the run D was looking shaky before Ferrell went down. Arizona crushed us on the ground, going for 234 yards (150 by RBs). Several teams that didn't run for a lot of overall yardage still had lead backs average nearly 5 YPC. We need the entire defensive unit to come out aggressive, clean up their assignments, angles, etc. We have the potential to really stymie this KC offense, but it's going to take very strong execution by all eleven guys on the field.

[Pattersonca65]

Man, I just managed to delete a pretty lengthy post I was almost done with. Short version: Young hasn't been great, but disappointing high picks are judged more harshly than they should be, especially when they are playing for other teams. Clelin Ferrell was an absolute bust as a top-5 pick, but he's actually a solid base end who is a valuable part of a rotation. Young should be in a role where he is playing 30 snaps a game, mostly rushing the passer, but now he's playing 50+, so we're going to see more mistakes.

The Ferrell injury sucks, as he isn't the player against the run that Ferrell is, and he's also worse against the pass as he's not fresh. But the run D was looking shaky before Ferrell went down. Arizona crushed us on the ground, going for 234 yards (150 by RBs). Several teams that didn't run for a lot of overall yardage still had lead backs average nearly 5 YPC. We need the entire defensive unit to come out aggressive, clean up their assignments, angles, etc. We have the potential to really stymie this KC offense, but it's going to take very strong execution by all eleven guys on the field.

I don't think Ferrell is/has been judged harshly overall by 49er fans. We knew coming in what he was good at and what he wasn't good at during his time with the Raiders. I don't think the expectations were that high to begin with and he has done what I think most people were expecting of him. CY on the other hand, it depends. If he really is messing up assignments and not stopping the run this is a valid cause of concern and knock in him. And if any of the rumors are true that he hasn't been playing hard at certain times than any criticism he gets is well deserved.

[thesack12]

Man, I just managed to delete a pretty lengthy post I was almost done with. Short version: Young hasn't been great, but disappointing high picks are judged more harshly than they should be, especially when they are playing for other teams. Clelin Ferrell was an absolute bust as a top-5 pick, but he's actually a solid base end who is a valuable part of a rotation. Young should be in a role where he is playing 30 snaps a game, mostly rushing the passer, but now he's playing 50+, so we're going to see more mistakes.

The Ferrell injury sucks, as he isn't the player against the run that Ferrell is, and he's also worse against the pass as he's not fresh. But the run D was looking shaky before Ferrell went down. Arizona crushed us on the ground, going for 234 yards (150 by RBs). Several teams that didn't run for a lot of overall yardage still had lead backs average nearly 5 YPC. We need the entire defensive unit to come out aggressive, clean up their assignments, angles, etc. We have the potential to really stymie this KC offense, but it's going to take very strong execution by all eleven guys on the field.

I don't think Ferrell is/has been judged harshly overall by 49er fans. We knew coming in what he was good at and what he wasn't good at during his time with the Raiders. I don't think the expectations were that high to begin with and he has done what I think most people were expecting of him. CY on the other hand, it depends. If he really is messing up assignments and not stopping the run this is a valid cause of concern and knock in him. And if any of the rumors are true that he hasn't been playing hard at certain times than any criticism he gets is well deserved.

Yeah, the judgment based on draft position is primarily resides within the fan base of the team that originally made the pick. As a guy moves on to his 2nd, 3rd team it becomes less and less of a factor in evaluation. That's not to say that draft pedigree doesn't enter the equation at all, but it a player's general perception is primarily tied to what cost he was to your team.

As for Ferrell specifically, I agree I don't think has been harshly viewed by 49ers circles. He was a dirt cheap pickup, and it was thought he could be a decent reclamation project. Under Kocurek guidance, the 49ers have reaped solid returns from more than a handful of those types of pickups. While Ferrell was far from spectacular, he was a useful player who started every game he played in and was rarely, if ever, a - player.

IMO, the best you can say about Chase Young is that he's eating up snaps. He's making very select few + plays, and routinely going through long spells of invisibility.

BTW, thanks for posting that write up on CY above. It was an interesting read, and we are seeing a lot of what that guy was describing. At this point, I wouldn't be shocked in Young has to settle for a 1 year contract in free agency.

Tell me I'm wrong, Chase. Go out there on Sunday and wreck the game with a monster performance and shut me the hell up!!!

[CrimsonCrew]

Man, I just managed to delete a pretty lengthy post I was almost done with. Short version: Young hasn't been great, but disappointing high picks are judged more harshly than they should be, especially when they are playing for other teams. Clelin Ferrell was an absolute bust as a top-5 pick, but he's actually a solid base end who is a valuable part of a rotation. Young should be in a role where he is playing 30 snaps a game, mostly rushing the passer, but now he's playing 50+, so we're going to see more mistakes.

The Ferrell injury sucks, as he isn't the player against the run that Ferrell is, and he's also worse against the pass as he's not fresh. But the run D was looking shaky before Ferrell went down. Arizona crushed us on the ground, going for 234 yards (150 by RBs). Several teams that didn't run for a lot of overall yardage still had lead backs average nearly 5 YPC. We need the entire defensive unit to come out aggressive, clean up their assignments, angles, etc. We have the potential to really stymie this KC offense, but it's going to take very strong execution by all eleven guys on the field.

I don't think Ferrell is/has been judged harshly overall by 49er fans. We knew coming in what he was good at and what he wasn't good at during his time with the Raiders. I don't think the expectations were that high to begin with and he has done what I think most people were expecting of him. CY on the other hand, it depends. If he really is messing up assignments and not stopping the run this is a valid cause of concern and knock in him. And if any of the rumors are true that he hasn't been playing hard at certain times than any criticism he gets is well deserved.

Ferrell was absolutely judged harshly by the Raiders fan-base. He came in to the Niners on a cheap one-year deal, so expectations were low and he probably exceeded them (though not in the pass rush vein). I guess the point I'm trying to make is that expectations for Young shouldn't have been that much different. We got him for a pick that will likely fall after #100. That's almost nothing (granted slightly more than we got for Trey Lance....). Anyone expecting him to be a game-changer was fooling themselves.