Chase Young, backup QBs and more: Five questions looming for Saints

METAIRIE, La. — It took New Orleans Saints defensive end Chase Young approximately one snap to make his presence known at training camp in July.

Young overpowered one of the tackles he went against in his first set of 11-on-11 drills. In the next set, he burst off the line of scrimmage and practically threw another offensive tackle aside in his pursuit of the quarterback.

If Young was feeling rusty after recovering from his offseason neck procedure in March, he wasn’t showing it at all.

“We’ve still got another month until the first game … I think I’ll be even better in a month,” Young said later that week.

Whether Young can translate his offseason success to the regular season and elevate an ailing pass rush — one that finished 31st in pass rush win rate (31.4%) last season — is just one of the questions facing New Orleans before its season opener against the Carolina Panthers on Sept. 8. His teammates and coaches think so.

“Chase is a dawg, man,” Saints defensive coordinator Joe Woods told ESPN a few weeks later. “That’s a great addition for us. You can tell why he was an early round draft pick. He’s big, powerful. He’s really going to help us in terms of pass rush.”

The Saints signed Young to a one-year deal worth up to $13 million this offseason, a somewhat risky move due to the neck issue. They pursued the deal knowing Young would likely miss some part of training camp, but gave themselves a safety net by tying up about $8 million of that deal in per-game roster bonuses.

Injuries have hindered Young’s career. He was the Washington Commanders’ No. 2 pick in the 2020 draft and earned Defensive Rookie of the Year honors that season, but a serious knee injury derailed most of his 2021 and 2022 seasons. The Commanders traded Young to the San Francisco 49ers for the final nine games of last season after declining to pick up his fifth-year option.

Those health concerns, however, have been alleviated so far after Young blew past his timetable to be ready at the beginning of camp.

Young’s play has allowed the Saints to feel comfortable enough to move defensive end Cameron Jordan to defensive tackle in certain situations. Carl Granderson, who led the team with 8.5 sacks last year, would play on the outside along with Young on such plays.

Jordan, 35, has been purely a defensive end for his entire career. But the intention is to figure out how to best utilize him and still create mismatches.

That was not a luxury the Saints had last year. Granderson and Jordan started every game outside and the unit finished tied for 28th with 34 sacks.

“The whole thing about defense or rush is how do we get our best rushers on the field? So when you look at our edge rushers, when you have Carl and Chase at edge, it’s how can we get some guys inside to give us some speed and applicability? And that’s just a trickle-down effect of moving ends inside,” defensive line coach Todd Grantham told ESPN during training camp.

Getting the best guys on the field can only work if the preseason hype turns into real results. Young had a career-high 7.5 sacks in his rookie season and last year.

If the Saints’ pass rush is going to turn things around, he’ll need a similar type of season, something teammate Demario Davis indicated he believed he could do.

“I think it was a huge signing, but it’s probably one of those underrated signings that’s going to show itself years down the line and especially this year. I wouldn’t be surprised if he puts himself in the Defensive Player of the Year category this year,” Davis said.

Davis said that Young has been “a problem” for the offense during practices and is “unblockable” at times.

“He works hard. He’s already established himself as a leader on this team and guys respond to him,” Davis said. “I think he brings the intensity every single day and I’m really excited to see what type of year he has. We need him to be big for us.”

Here are some other questions looming for the Saints going in to Week 1:

Who will be starting next to Tyrann Mathieu at safety?

Johnathan Abram, Will Harris and Jordan Howden have spent most of the summer competing to be the starting safety next to Mathieu. The competition still felt muddled by the end of the preseason, with all three getting extended playing time in the final preseason game.

Abram, who started three games last season, was the surprise cut on Tuesday.

“God works in mysterious ways,” Abram wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, after the news broke.

Allen declined to say who won the competition, but said Howden and Harris did “good things” throughout camp.

“I think both of them have qualities that we like. And I think both those guys are going to help us,” Allen said.

Who won the backup quarterback job?

The Saints kept all three quarterbacks as expected, but they’re quiet for now as to who will back up Derek Carr.

Jake Haener has the advantage of having last season with the Saints, but neither he nor rookie Spencer Rattler have live game experience, nor do they have extended experience in the offensive system. The Saints implemented a new scheme when they hired Klint Kubiak in the offseason.

Rattler was at his most impressive in the final preseason game, completing a 21-yard touchdown pass and also a 43-yard pass to A.T. Perry.

Haener said on Tuesday that neither quarterback has been informed of who has won the backup job yet. Allen echoed that statement in his Tuesday news conference.

“It’s a healthy competition,” Allen said. “I think both those guys have done well. I’m not in any way ready to make any sort of statement or comment or declaration … we’ll just let those guys keep coming out and working in practice and getting better.”

Allen said the unique challenge of having two young quarterbacks is finding enough snaps to go around for both of them.

“We’ve got to find ways to get reps for these guys … we have two young guys that need work and need to develop,” Allen said. “There’s only so many snaps you can get throughout the course of the week. That’ll be our challenge.”

Will Blake Grupe hold on to the starting job at kicker this season?

Allen said that he feels second-year kicker Grupe has improved from his rookie season and was consistent enough over the course of camp to win the job over rookie kicker Charlie Smyth.

“When he’s gotten into games, he’s made the kicks that he needed to make. He’s been consistent in practice,” Allen said.

Grupe had a perfect performance in preseason games, making all five extra points and all five of his field goal attempts, including 52- and 54-yarders.

Smyth, a first year kicker from Northern Ireland, also impressed at training camp. He made a 65-yard field goal in an open practice at Tulane and also sealed a win against the Arizona Cardinals in the team’s first preseason game with a 37-yard field goal. He did have some short-yardage misses earlier in camp, and he was ultimately cut on Tuesday.

Smyth will have to clear waivers to come back on the practice squad, but any team wanting to claim him would have to put him on their 53-man roster. That would be a risky move considering other teams have limited footage of him due to the Saints closed training camp practices.

Grupe won the job over veteran Wil Lutz last year and made 81.1% of his field goals in 2023. Grupe’s longest field goal last season was 54 yards, but he missed a 46-yarder early in the season that would have won a game over the Green Bay Packers.

What will they do at right tackle?

Trevor Penning or Olisaemeka Udoh, who both made the final roster cut to 53 on Tuesday, will likely fill the right tackle spot left open by All-Pro tackle Ryan Ramczyk, whose season ended when the Saints placed him on the physically unable to perform list before training camp begin. Ramczyk will miss at least the 2024 season with a serious knee injury and is facing an uncertain future because of it.

Ramczyk’s knee issues opened the door for Penning to move to right tackle, a switch that he said he was excited about because it gave him a fresh start after last year’s struggles. Penning began the 2023 season as the team’s starting left tackle, but was benched early in the season and moved to right tackle this spring after the Saints drafted Taliese Fuaga in the first round.

Those struggles haven’t been completely behind him this year. While Penning has been the team’s starting right tackle for most of camp, his inconsistency hasn’t allowed him to pin down that role permanently. The Saints rotated veteran Udoh into that spot on a regular basis in the final stretch of camp.

Penning might have done enough to hold on to the spot with his performance against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday after the Saints put some pressure on him with increased competition in the final week of camp.

Allen said he didn’t know if the competition sparked something in Penning, but did say he feels like he’s showed improvement over the last few weeks.

“All I can tell you is that I feel like he played better in the game,” Allen said after last week’s game against the Titans. “I feel like he had a good week of practice and I thought he did some good things tonight.”

The Saints kept only eight offensive lineman on the roster, including left guard Nick Saldiveri, who has been injured for most of camp. That means they could look to add to the position via waiver claims or signings, although Lucas Patrick has appeared to lock up the left guard spot in Saldiveri’s absence.

The Saints likely won’t tip their hand on a starting right tackle until Week 1, but securing and keeping the starting job would be a huge turnaround for Penning, who was selected in the first round of the 2022 NFL draft as a left tackle.