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A year ago, I had the privilege of previewing Trevon Young as a rookie out of the University of Louisville.
I really liked his upside. It’s hard to tell if a 6th-round pick from the 2018 NFL Draft will ultimately carve out a spot in the gameday depth chart, but Young seemed to have some of the characteristics of an NFL player. He has plenty of moves to swim past tackles and good size off the outside.
After a strong preseason last year, he ended up appearing in two regular season games and getting only twelve snaps. On one of those twelve snaps, he did recover a fumble against the San Francisco 49ers in Levi Stadium.
Roster Battle
Entering camp there does not appear to be an overwhelming array of top-shelf talent off the outside, but there are a bunch of solid players who will be competing with Young. Behind Dante Fowler, Jr., Clay Matthews, and Samson Ebukam, Young will compete with Ogbonnia Okoronkwo, Josh Carraway (roster preview), Justin Lawler (roster preview), and Morgan Fox (roster preview) to round out the Rams’ depth on the outside.
Like Young, Carraway was impressive in college, was a late pick and has spent time as a practice squad option with the Tennessee Titans and Washington the last two seasons. Okoronkwo is small but fast and will be looking to show the he can be as electric as a pro as he was at Oklahoma. Fox and Lawler were undrafted but have looked impressive at times. The Rams are likely to keep three of these five players active.
Expectations
I’m a Trevon Young fan. I’m excited to see his game develop now with a year of NFL experience under his belt. He is also putting his old 2015 Music City Bowl hip injury further in the rearview mirror. If he makes as many plays as he did last preseason, he has a nice shot of making the cut.
Chances of Making Final Roster (5/10)
Fowler and Matthews will see limited or no time during the preseason. Ebukam will probably sit out most of the time as well, so we should have plenty of looks at Young and his competition. Young should be able to make a bunch of plays just as he did during the 2018 preseason, but he will need to approach a level of technical mastery where the coaching staff will be able to trust him in spells against starting NFL tackles. If he does, he’ll at least be a practice squad guy.
And maybe more.