Analyzing the 2023 trade deadline moves: Washington defensive ends going different ways at the deadline

Chase Young traded from the Commanders to the 49ers

San Francisco bring in another highly-drafted freak edge rusher

49ers receive: Chase Young

Commanders receive: 2024 third-round draft pick

Since I just talked about the Commanders in extensive fashion, I thought it would make sense to go straight to the other edge defender they just shipped off. We know that 49ers GM John Lynch and company are always in the market for talented defensive linemen and in particular, their ability to bring in formerly highly-drafted guys and let D-line coach Kris Kocurek work his magic, has reaped major benefits for them.

I know that Chase Young has lost some of the shine since being drafted second overall back in 2020, due to being banged up for about half of his young career, but this guy was one of my highly-graded prospects ever, he was the clear Defensive Rookie of the Year and this year he’s on pace for easily the best numbers of his career (five sacks, nine QB hits and six TFLs).

Drake Jackson was bound for a breakout sophomore campaign, racking up three sacks vs. the Steelers on opening day, but has not been as effective since and with just 15 snaps per game over the past month, it appears he’s not full healthy. So while Nick Bosa is tied for a league-high 44 pressures against the belief of people just looking at sacks (which he has five of), they clearly needed to add some juice to that unit.

The 49ers had already brought in Randy Gregory from Denver at the start of October for a swap of sixth- for a seventh-round pick, who they’ll only be paying 840.000 dollars for the remainder of this season and then after a 14-million-dollar cap hit in 2024, they can move from him without any type of dead cap.

Now they bring in Young on similar terms, as they’ll only be paying him 560.000 dollars on the final year of his rookie deal, with Washington accounting for the rest of the money, and all it cost them in terms of team-building resources most likely is their third-round pick this next April being pushed back a year and 10-20 spots, as they’ll be a team at the end of each round, which isn’t too far off the 2025 comp pick range. So really for them it’s a home-run on all fronts.

So now I won’t dive too much into the Commanders’ side of the deal. I do understand why Montez Sweat may be worth a pick by one round higher, due to the extensive injury history of Chase Young, but you’d still think they’d be able to net a little bit more for a former second overall selection.

Considering any contender could’ve offered the same compensation, Washington would have probably preferred their offer, based on the fact San Francisco made it to the NFC Championship game each of the last two years and they have a good chance of making it there again, which would move that pick back towards the end of the standard 96 selections across three rounds.

That doesn’t even take into account potentially wanting to send young to the opposite conference. So I understand that there’s some urgency for this new ownership ground to quickly collect these additional resources and have the flexibility to turn around the roster fairly quickly – most likely under new guidance – but with as well as Young had played, I thought they had a chance to get a second-rounder back or at least do this deal with a team likely to select a little bit earlier.