While rumors swirl that the Kansas City Chiefs could draft Notre Dame’s Jimmy Clausen with the No. 5 pick in the draft, it’s another Irish player — OT Sam Young — that has been taking the advice of Charlie Weis.
He followed the advice of his former coach, Weis, and viewed tape of the Patriots, focusing on the 2003 season and tackle Matt Light.
“Some of that technique’s unbelievable,’’ Young said. “There are some things in the pro game that really don’t get taught at the collegiate level, and really the techniques, it’s unbelievable what you can take away from film and how much more of a chess match it is at the pro level. A guy does one thing one play, and a guy’s going to counter it the next, versus college, it’s more butting heads.
“I took a lot from it, and tried to incorporate it into my game, and it’s helped.’’
Young thinks he got an advantage over other prospects at his position. He has done some of the things that, say, the Patriots or Chiefs or Broncos would ask him to, so chances are that would speed up his development to their pro game.
“As a team, we’d just watch a game on television, and hear a play or see a call and say, ‘Hey, we run that,’ ’’ Young said. “So there’s definitely some crossover, but an NFL playbook’s a lot more in-depth, a lot bigger, and that’s something I’m going to have to adjust to. But I do think have a leg up in that aspect.’’
Every Notre Dame player will be on the radar of Chiefs fans because of Weis, but Young is the one most likely to land in Kansas City. We’ve talked a lot about the “right 53″ around here and Young seems to fit the bill. He was the first true freshman to start the season opener on the offensive line at Notre Dame since freshmen became eligible in 1972 and went on to start every game of his career.
There’s no chance Young gets into the top 5 talk, but he should very much be in play for one of the Chiefs two second round picks.
