That's exactly my point.
He's not as dominate as a pass rusher as the Bosa twins nor as dominant as the Watt brothers.
Further you see him getting pushed around in the running game.
Is that player worth a top 5 pick?
Chase Young is a good player but the hype to ability ratio is on a different plane than I've ever seen for a defensive player. Normally when it reaches anything like this level it's a true superstar defender, someone like Lawrence Taylor or Hugh Green. Those guys jumped off the screen via sheer athleticism and explosiveness. There was no need to supply a graphic to point out where they were lining up, as ESPN resorted to tonight.
That was one of the most hilarious things I've ever seen during bowl season. I kept thinking...Dolphin fans want to draft the guy with the arrow pointing toward him.
I thought two segments of the game defined Chase Young. As already mentioned in another ANUFan post, when Clemson took over on its 5 yard line with slightly less than 4 minutes remaining and a title game berth on the line, Chase Young might as well not have been on the field. He didn't threaten to impact one play. It wasn't so much an indictment on Chase Young himself as the silly notion to draft an edge guy instead of a quarterback.
But the play I remember most is late third quarter. I had watched Chase Young all game. It was his typical monotone delivery regardless of where he lined up. But all of a sudden Ohio State shifted Young inside and the outside linebacker #5 Browning took Young's spot at left defensive end. That one play unfolded exponentially different than any other throughout the game. Browning exploded around the right tackle's outside shoulder and got to the quarterback in a flash. It was immediately obvious what had transpired. That tackle #73 Anchrum had been lulled into complacency by Young's ordinary speed and explosiveness. He expected merely more of the same. But once it was a more sudden guy with far superior speed around the edge, Anchrum was stunned and couldn't react at all.
It will be very interesting to see how Chase Young tests, if he indeed does those tests. Heavy legged guy. More powerful than he is given credit for on the bull rush but not nearly the threat around the corner. Every time I watch Ohio State, including tonight, I am more intrigued by at least a dozen players on that roster.
However I have no sympathy for them failing to reach the title game. They had a 2 point lead and 3rd and 3 at the Clemson 40 with 4 minutes remaining. Instead of an aggressive play call they resorted to a wimpy empty formation and threw a flanker screen on third down. I laughed. It was the epitome of a scared play call. Naturally it was wiped out, which is the deserved fortune of third down screen passes against top opponents.
It is incredible how frequently teams go on to lose the game once they make scared choices like that. At that point I would have been shocked if Clemson did not prevail.
