Just In: Two Key Players has decided to join ohio State Buckeyes

The Ohio State pair becomes the first Defensive Rookie of the Year winners and former colleagues to reconnect in the NFL.
Tuesday marked a number of trade deadline transactions for the Washington Commanders, one of which involved trading defensive end Chase Young to the San Francisco 49ers in exchange for a 2024 draft pick. In exchange for a 2024 draft pick, the Commanders also traded fellow defensive end Montez Sweat to the Chicago Bears.

You may argue which team came out on top in every NFL trade, but the San Francisco 49ers acquired a player with a strong lineage. Young won Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2020 after being selected with the second overall choice in the 2020 NFL Draft. After knee injuries in 2021 ended his season and prevented him from playing, he is having a successful comeback season.

Young moves to San Francisco to join 2022 Defensive Player of the Year Nick Bosa, who signed a record-setting contract prior to the season and is still one of the NFL’s top edge rushers. NFL trade deadline winners, losers: 49ers score with Chase Young as Commanders confuse.

Since the Los Angeles Rams acquired Von Miller in a trade in 2021, this transaction represents the first time that two Defensive Rookie of the Year winners are on the same team. Miller took home the prize in 2011; Aaron Donald, a standout defensive tackle for the Rams, did it in 2014.

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Young and Bosa were Ohio State’s best defensive linemen. The duo combined for 12 sacks in 2017 and 14.5 in 2018 for the Buckeyes. Tuesday’s trade sets up the first time in NFL history that two players who both won Defensive Rookie of the Year and played together in college are on the same team.

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However, the reunion of college teammates on NFL rosters is not unprecedented. A few recent examples of college reunions in the NFL are as follows:

Major upgrade: The 49ers’ John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan pulled off another blockbuster move with the acquisition of Chase Young.

Davante Adams and Derek Carr
This reunion is one of the few to happen via trade in recent memory. The Green Bay Packers shockingly traded the All-Pro receiver to the Las Vegas Raiders in March 2022. Green Bay received a first- and second-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft in return.