Chase Young was the New Orleans Saints’ biggest free agency acquisition last offseason. Things began slow for Young but he began to validate some of the belief the Saints showed in him as the season went on.

This improvement was seen across the defensive line after transitioning from Todd Grantham to Brian Young as the defensive line coach. Young, Brian Bresee and Cameron Jordan saw the most noticeable improvements.

Pro Football Focus highlighted Young as one of the biggest risers in the second half of the season. How PFF divided the aligns with Darren Rizzi replacing Dennis Allen, Weeks 1-9 and Weeks 10-18.

In that time frame, Young had just half a sack more, but he began to get significantly more pressures. The defensive end had 33 pressures in the back stretch of the season, highlighted by his monster game versus the New York Giants. That was the seventh most in the league during the time span.

Young improved from a 56.6 in the first 9 games to a 73.3 grade in the second half of the season. The Saints have a decision to make on Young. PFF saw a step up from Young and the raw numbers support their observation.