Defensive end Chase Young passed his physical and officially joined the 49ers on Wednesday, the team announced.
Conversations between the teams began two weeks ago, with the trade agreed to before Tuesday’s deadline. The 49ers traded their 2024 compensatory third-round draft pick to the Commanders for Young.
Young tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in 2021, and the complicated surgery included grafting Young’s left patellar tendon to repair the right ACL tear. He missed most of 2022, playing only 115 snaps in three games.
Between the injury in 2021 and the rehab in 2022, Young played only 12 games the past two seasons and made 1.5 sacks.
The 49ers, though, had no reservations about Young’s health.
“There’s preliminary medical stuff where they send medical files and all that,” General Manager John Lynch said Wednesday, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “But it sure looks like he’s been healthy based upon what he’s been doing on the field.”
Young played 407 snaps in seven games with the Commanders this season and totaled 15 tackles, five sacks, six tackles for loss and one pass defensed.
“I kept turning on the tape and like, 75, 64, those are a lot of snaps,” Lynch said. “And so I think the proof is in what’s translating on the field, and he’s been playing a lot and looking really good.”
