In the NFL, a solid pass rusher and edge defender is one of the most important positions you can have in today’s game, and for fans of the Washington Football Team, they should feel pretty lucky that over the last several years, that position has been occupied by veteran Ryan Kerrigan, who is among the best players in franchise history.
Now, with Kerrigan entering the back nine of his career, Washington fans got lucky once again with the team decided to draft DE’s Montez Sweat and Chase Young in back to back drafts, who seems to have every chance of going down as one of the better duos to play that position. They has the talent to be great, and now they get the chance to learn under Kerrigan in their early years and see how to play in the NFL the right way.
Kerrigan has spent a lot of time near Young so far during training camp, and he remarked on Tuesday that he’s been extremely impressed so far.
“Chase Young is as advertised for a reason,” Kerrigan said, via NBC Sports Washington. “That guy put up incredible numbers at Ohio State.”
Getting a nod of approval from a potential future Hall-of-Famer like Kerrigan is nothing to gloss over. Last year, Kerrigan had his Iron-Man streak of 139 straight games finally broken due to an injury, and he is second all-time on Washington’s all-time sack list. It’s safe to say that he knows what he’s talking about.
“That’s one of the things I really liked about him coming out, was that Chase wasn’t just potential. He had numbers to back it up,” Kerrigan said. “It wasn’t like, ‘Oh this guy is big and fast, he’s probably going to be a pass rusher.’ It was ‘this guy is big and fast and he has the production to back it up.'”
The duo that everyone is talking about in Washington is Chase Young and Montez Sweat, but don’t forget about Kerrigan, who can act as a perfect mentor to both of them as they continue on in their careers.
