The best defensive player in college football in Ohio State Buckeyes defensive end Chase Young is planning to return to Ohio State for his senior season.
Chase Young is projected to be a top-two pick in the NFL Draft, but for now, his plan is to return to Ohio State. Can we believe him?
TMZ Sports was able to get an interesting soundbite from the best defensive prospect in football. When asked about if he’s getting ready for the 2020 NFL Draft, Young said his plan is to return to Ohio State for his senior season. Wait, what?
Unless his Buckeyes come up short in the 2020 College Football Playoff, there is no reason for him to return to school for his senior season. Young is already the undisputed best defensive player in college football and will be presumably the second player taken in the 2020 NFL Draft after Heisman Trophy favorite Joe Burrow likely goes No. 1 to the Cincinnati Bengals.
Young is very likely to be playing for a team like the New York Giants in 2020 should he forgo his senior season and enter the upcoming NFL Draft. This would be a phenomenal landing spot for him, as he’d have his shot at being the next Lawrence Taylor. Even if he’s just the next Michael Strahan, then Young is poised to have an unbelievable NFL career playing for the G-Men.
Sure, Young is clearly trying to avoid announcing that he’s going to leave school after his junior season. He’d be a fool not to because he’s a top-three lock and this is life-changing money he and his family would be forgoing for another year. Young’s draft stock cannot get any higher than it is right now.
That being said, it makes sense for him to say he’s coming back to school because his team has one, possibly two massive games ahead of them. Ohio State is one of three undefeated teams left in college football. They will face the No. 3 Clemson Tigers in the Playstation Fiesta Bowl on Dec. 28. The winner of that game will play either the LSU Tigers or the Oklahoma Sooners for the title.
We can’t reasonably believe Young in that he’s staying in Columbus in 2020. However, announcing he’s going pro in the hours leading up to the Heisman Trophy presentation would be a major distraction for the Ohio State program. Head coach Ryan Day probably doesn’t want to deal with this for the next two weeks. Young is going pro, but he’s not going to tell us right now that he is.
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