Young visited with the Saints on Monday and then inked a one-year contract worth a guaranteed $13 million. According to a source who spoke to Schefter, the Saints were one of the teams that was aware of the neck condition and felt confident in signing the player.
Young’s neck pain from the first preseason game kept him out of the Washington Commanders’ season opening the previous year. Young played the following week and did not miss another game in 2023, despite the initial expectation that he would wait until Week 3.
Prior to being traded, he had 2.5 sacks for the Commanders
following Week 8, to the San Francisco 49ers. He has 7.5 total sacks at the end of the season and had a sack in Super Bowl LVIII.
Ohio State’s Young was chosen by the Commanders with the second overall choice in the 2020 draft. Young played in just 12 games from 2021 to 2022 after rupturing his patellar tendon and injuring his right ACL in 2021, despite recording 7.5 sacks in his first season.
Not every Saints player, including Young, is anticipated to be ready for training camp at this time. When speaking at the NFL scouting combine in February, Saints coach Dennis Allen mentioned that linebacker Nephi Sewell, who tore his ACL last year, is also anticipated to lose time.