Rivera states his case for why Young should win Defensive ROY originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
We're only a day away from NFL Honors, and a few members of the Washington Football Team are up for yearly awards.
One of them is rookie phenom Chase Young, who has a pretty good chance at winning Defensive Rookie of the Year. In just his first season as a pro, the Ohio State product helped Washington go from 3-13 to 7-9 and earn a playoff spot for the first time since 2015.
While Young has cemented himself as one of the brightest young stars in the NFL, his head coach, Ron Rivera, gave his argument for why the 21-year-old should come away with some hardware Saturday night.
"To have a rookie come in and kind of just take over certain aspects of our team, he truly is an emotional leader," Rivera said on Good Morning Football. "The young man practices and plays at a high level, a lot of energy, smart football player. He's a guy that came in as a young pro who understood what it was gonna take, what he had to do to get himself to where he needed to be to help us, and that's probably the biggest thing."
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Young finished his rookie season with 7.5 sacks, 10 tackles for loss, four forced fumbles and a touchdown that everyone remembers against San Francisco.
His numbers were impressive, though not mind-blowing, yet Rivera's praise of the young pass-rusher didn't include much about his contributions after the ball was snapped. His endorsement was of Young the leader. So, whoever wins the award Saturday night, Washington fans can feel good about what's still to come from their star defensive lineman.
"He really did make an impact," Rivera said. "And not just on our defensive side of the ball, but our offensive side of the ball and special teams. He really did bring a lot of energy."
NFL Honors is scheduled to begin Saturday at 9 p.m.
