Should the Chicago Bears trade for Commanders pass rusher Chase Young?

The 2023 NFL Trade Deadline is quickly approaching. Teams have until 4 pm EST on Halloween to strike a deal, and rumors are swirling that the Chicago Bears could be pursuing one of the league’s top young pass rushers, Chase Young.

Young was selected second overall by the Washington Commanders in the 2020 NFL Draft and quickly emerged as one of the sport’s bright young defensive stars with 7.5 sacks as a rookie (15 games). Young’s rapid rise has been derailed by injuries the last two seasons — he’s totaled just 11 games since 2021 — but he appears back on his superstar trajectory in 2023 with five sacks through six games.

Young suffered a torn ACL on Nov. 14, 2021, but at just 24 years old, he’s back to full strength and playing like his 2020 scouting report suggested he would. He has the Commanders’ second-highest Pro Football Focus grade on defense (78.7), also the second-best PFF grade of his career.

More critical to the Bears is Young’s pass-rush grade. His five sacks aren’t a fluke, he has a near-elite 83.9 pass-rush grade from PFF, which is (by far) the highest pass-rush grade of his career.

The point? Chase Young is back. And he’s a rare blue-chip player who can transform a defense.

The Commanders are rumored to be willing to entertain grade offers for Young and Montez Sweat if they lose Week 8’s game to the Philadelphia Eagles. So, yeah, it’s safe to assume Young and Sweat are both ripe for the taking.

The Chicago Bears defense began the season with big questions at defensive end, and until Yannick Ngaqoue was signed on the eve of training camp, the fear was there’d be no established pass rusher to improve on last year’s putrid sack numbers. To put 2022 in perspective, safety Jaquan Brisker led the Bears in sacks with four.

But even with Ngaqoue on the roster, the Bears’ pass rush hasn’t improved. They’ve totaled just ten sacks through seven games, and five came against the Commanders, who are on pace to surrender the most sacks in a single season. Those ten sacks rank 31st in the league.

Young would represent a huge upgrade for the Bears in 2023, and at just 24 years old, he’d profile as a long-term cornerstone. That last part is a bit tricky, however. The Commanders declined Young’s fifth-year option, he’ll be an unrestricted free agent at season’s end. No team will trade for him without first agreeing to a new deal, which, according to Spotrac, will check in around four years, $80 million.

Bears fans against the idea of trading for Young think there’s too much injury risk with Young to commit that kind of contract to him. Fans in favor of acquiring the former Ohio State star think the risk is worth the reward.

Consider me in the camp of the risk being worth the reward, assuming the Commanders will accept a second-round pick for him. Remember: the Bears have the Carolina Panthers’ first-round pick, they will land two blue-chip rookies, even if they trade their second-round pick to the Commanders. And call it a hunch, but I don’t think there will be a player of Young’s caliber on the board when Chicago’s second-round pick comes up.

If the Washington Commanders pull off an upset over the Philadelphia Eagles, all of this speculation could be for nothing. But where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and the Chicago Bears should do whatever it takes to turn up the heat and land Chase Young, who will do the same against opposing quarterbacks.