The 49ers' underperforming pass rush is about to be scary.
San Francisco acquired former No. 2 overall pick Chase Young from the Washington Commanders on Tuesday in exchange for a 2024 third-round draft pick, league sources confirmed to NBC Sports Bay Area's Matt Maiocco and Jennifer Lee Chan.
49ers star Nick Bosa and Young, teammates for two seasons at Ohio State, reunite in the Bay Area. And they'll probably be reuniting at the quarterback many times this season.
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In seven games this season, Young posted a career-high 17.2 percent pressure rate and tallied five sacks. That's better than his pressure rate in 2020 when he was named NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year after notching a career-high 7.5 sacks, four forced fumbles and 10 tackles for loss.
Per Next Gen Stats, the 49ers now feature two of the top-five defensive players in quarterback pressures this season in Bosa (41 pressures) and Young (40). The only players ahead of that pair are Jacksonville Jaguars star Josh Allen (48 pressures), Dallas Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons (46) and Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Josh Sweat (44).
Of those five players, Bosa ranks dead last with just three sacks in eight games. Allen leads the pack with nine sacks, followed by Sweat (5.5), Parsons (5.0) and Young (5.0).
San Francisco 49ers
Through his first eight games last year, Bosa tallied 9.5 sacks en route to winning the NFL Defensive Player of the Year award and becoming the league's highest-paid non-quarterback before the 2023 season.
Following the 49ers' 31-17 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, Bosa admitted his 44-day holdout from training camp this summer impacted his slow start to this season.
“If you just stay the course, [sacks will] eventually come if you put yourself in the right positions,” Bosa said. “It’s a really long year, so hopefully in the biggest moments, that’s when they’ll come.”
Now reunited with his former college teammate Young in Santa Clara, Bosa should begin to look like the All-Pro he was last season as opposing teams are forced to use more resources protecting their quarterback from both sides.