Commanders News: Chase Young, Daron Payne, Jacoby Brissett and Ron Rivera

Chase Young is ready to help the Commanders

After skipping the voluntary part of OTAs, there was an enormous sense of excitement to witness Chase Young on the practice field for the beginning of the team's mandatory minicamp. The defensive end missed a lot of football over the last two seasons and recently had his fifth-year option turned down by the Washington Commanders, which makes the upcoming campaign one of immense importance for the once-generational prospect.

The Commanders took things slow with Young, but he looked extremely sharp during drills and seems to have found some explosiveness once again. This was a positive first step for the Ohio State product during what will be a gradual process before Week 1 of the 2023 campaign.

When speaking to media members after the session concluded, Young revealed via Yahoo Sports that he's hearing the doubts and using them as motivation. The edge defender also delved a little deeper into his preparations before Washington's mandatory minicamp and how practice went from a personal perspective.

"Yeah, but I can use a lot of things as motivation. All of them, they’re stuck in my back pocket. Explosive work, plyometrics — shoot, everything you can do to a knee, I did it. [I worked on] strengthening my hips, just really strengthening my lower body and obviously technique work. I felt pretty explosive out there. Still two months until we report [for training camp]. It’s just [time to] keep my head down and stay grinding."

- Chase Young via Yahoo Sports

Again, some trade talk surfaced on Tuesday evening where Young is concerned. That's obviously out of his control, so focusing on football matters and nothing else is of paramount importance.