Washington Commanders defensive end Chase Young addressed the media after practice on Sept. 15. Here is a full transcript of the press conference.
On how it feels to be cleared:
"Man, feeling blessed. Ready to rock."
On what it was like last week being close to playing:
"I mean, obviously I wanna play every game. Everybody wants to play every game. But you know, it's all good. My time will come, so it's time. Now it's time to go play. So definitely, just blessed to be out there doing everything I need to do to prepare."
On if being cleared was just a matter of how he responded to contact in practice this week:
"Yeah, really just time too. It was just time honestly. But yeah, I'm feeling good. Time to play."
On if he felt like he was in a good spot prior to the injury:
"Yeah, definitely. Definitely. I haven't stopped working. Every day I still was trying to perfect my craft and just keep my head down."
On how he is approaching a potential snap count:
"I mean, honestly I'm not even really worried about it. I'm gonna go out there and I'm just gonna play and whatever happens, happens."
On what he thought of the defense's performance last week and on how he can contribute:
"Yeah, just trying to be the best Chase I can be, and that's just doing my job and just trying to do my best to contribute."
On how he has helped the younger defensive ends on the team:
"Yeah, I mean any tips I can give, I give. Any questions that a rookie may ask me, I just try to embrace them with open arms. I just remind them just to be focused and keep your head down and keep going."
On how he felt seeing DE Montez Sweat have a big performance in the opener:
"Man, that's my guy. We've been working in the offseason, so it definitely feels good to see what we worked on together come alive in the game."
On how he feels compared to last year and specifically with his knee:
"My knee? It's not [an issue]. I'm all good."
*On what the last month has been like mentally: *"I was cool. Things happen outside of your control. You just play football, you can't really control if you get hurt, and things like that. So, I wasn't really tripping too bad. I just knew my time was gonna come again. So, I just stayed focused and stayed consistent on what I had to do. And now we are here."
On if there are any specific parts of his game he's focused on this Sunday:
"Basically everything. I'm trying to check all the boxes off. Just make sure that mentally I'm prepared to go in all phases of the game."
On if he feels like his conditioning is where it needs to be:
"Yeah, man we definitely conditioned. You work out with [Ohio State Defensive Line] Coach [Larry] Johnson, he calls it, he's gonna test your oil. We definitely got our oil tested. I wouldn't say it's on a totally different level, but I feel like we're definitely in pretty good shape, good football shape. I mean, it's just gonna help us be even more ready."
