2019 College Football: Ranking the top Defense for Heisman candidates
Chase Young, EDGE, Ohio State
After taking over for the injured Nick Bosa in 2018, Ohio State’s Chase Young finished the season with 9.5 sacks. He now enters his junior season with extremely lofty expectations. Luckily for Ohio State fans and us in the NFL draft world, he has gone above and beyond our expectations for this season.
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Through three games, Young has 11 total tackles, 5.5 TFLs and a whopping five sacks. The only players who have more sacks than him are Curtis Weaver (Boise State), Darius Stills (West Virginia) and Oluwole Betiku Jr. (Illinois), who are all tied with six.
So far, Young has been an absolute game-wrecker, bursting through opposing lines and stuffing running backs in their spot. On passing downs, Young shows the get-off and technique to honestly come by those large sack numbers.
Point being, Young is the best defensive end in the nation and is my top candidate for Defense For Heisman.
Curtis Weaver, EDGE, Boise State
As mentioned earlier, Weaver is one of three players tied with six sacks to lead all of college football. Like with Young, most draft analysts had lofty expectations for Weaver heading into 2019. In his first two seasons for the Broncos, Weaver has a combined 76 total tackles, 28 TFLs and 19.5 sacks. And also like Young, so far he’s exceeded these expectations.
In the first three games of 2019, Weaver has 15 total tackles, seven tackles for loss and six sacks. Weaver is a slick pass rusher who often beats tackles with explosive hand moves. Like Young, he shows a knack for keeping his pad level low.
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Now, I should note that four of Weaver’s sacks came in Week 3 against Portland State, so yes, his numbers are a bit inflated. However, I think he’s shown enough on the field to warrant serious consideration in any Defense for Heisman conversation this season.