NFL teams will have these questions about Joe Burrow and Chase Young. Here are their answers
The first two picks of the next NFL draft aren’t thinking about the professional game, or money, or what fan base is tagging them most on social media. These guys on Friday afternoon are thinking about the most prestigious trophy a college football player can win.
They’re thinking about the Heisman Trophy.
The four Heisman finalists -- Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts, Ohio State’s Justin Fields, Louisiana State’s Joe Burrow and Ohio State’s Chase Young -- were trotted out before reporters on Times Square and they huddled around the trophy for photos.
So that professional draft next April wasn’t a primary topic of discussion. But it will be eventually. And assuming Burrow and Young declare for the 2020 draft as pro scouts expect, they’ll face questions that, well, they already have answers for.
Because I asked them on Friday and got those answers.
For Burrow it’s quite simple: He just put together a season for the ages at LSU in which he completed 78.3 percent of his passes while throwing for 4,715 yards, 48 touchdowns and only six interceptions.
No one in the country threw more touchdown passes.
But, no, the most significant question scouts will eventually ask is not how he did it, although that one will obviously be asked. The most significant question is how Burrow’s production soared to such heights when the year before he was nowhere near that orbit ...
...When the year before he was kind of just a guy -- completing 57.8 percent of his passes with 16 touchdown passes and five interceptions at LSU.
“Honestly, it was just having an offseason with all the receivers and building that trust,” he said. “I know exactly when they’re going to break their routes off. I know exactly where they’re going to be, and they know when the ball’s going to be there, and when to get their eyes around. That’s really been the biggest factor.”
This is important because some NFL teams are wary about drafting one-year wonders. And Burrow personifies that now. His first year at LSU after transferring from Ohio State was solid but not spectacular.
But this year he simply lit up the Southeastern Conference like a comet aglow in the night sky. The season was so amazing even he has had to recalibrate his goals a bit.
“You come into college with goals of being a starting quarterback and goals of winning the Heisman Trophy,” Burrow said. “And when that happens you create more goals. That’s kind of what keeps me grounded. I’m striving to be the best. I obviously haven’t made it there yet so I’m going to keep working hard to be there.”
Young is not a one-year wonder although he’s shown significant improvement in 2019 over 2018.
This year Young broke the OSU single-season sack record with 16.5 despite being suspended two games for accepting a loan from a family friend, which violated NCAA rules. Young’s sacks were up from 10.5 last year but even that number is attention-grabbing.
So that’s not the issue with Young. What teams will be wondering when they decide if Young’s worthy of a No. 1 or No. 2 overall pick in the draft is whether he’s a game-defining or even franchise-defining player.
Because that’s what a player taken that high must be. Because a player taken that high must be highly responsible for transforming the typically awful team picking that high into a good team.
So is Young, already a unicorn of sorts in that he’s a defensive end vying for the Heisman Trophy, also a potential franchise-defining NFL player?
“I think you see it on film,” Young said. “We don’t just get sacks. We try to get sack-fumbles. I feel I can play the run and the pass. I feel like I have a pretty high IQ for a football player with my play recognition. I know the plays that are coming to me. And I try to put it all on the line because everything I do is football.”
Talking to Young it’s easy to recognize he’s already something of a pro. He’s been traveling on the awards ceremony circuit recently and says one way he relaxes during that hectic time is being in his room and watching film.
He also has patterned himself after players who have come before and are now NFL successes, such as Joey Bosa and Nick Bosa. So he understands how they made it big and he’s on the same path.
“When I got to Ohio State, I tried to do everything Nick did,” Young said. “He’s a great technician. But on the next level, I try to emulate Joey, Khalil Mack, even Aaron Donald -- guys who really use technique and win on purpose, as I like to say.
“When you use technique you don’t win by accident. Because you trained and can go back to your training. You planned to win. It didn’t just happen.”
Right answer.
This story was originally published December 13, 2019 at 7:56 PM.
