Huard: The strength Seahawks rookie DT Cameron Young must play to

Throughout the last week, Brock Huard of Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk has been going through the biggest adjustments that the Seattle Seahawks rookies in 2023 will need to make as they transition from the college game to the NFL.

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The latest player to get the spotlight from the FOX college football analyst and former NFL quarterback was defensive tackle Cameron Young, a fourth-round selection out of Mississippi State. But rather than focusing on an adjustment for Young, Huard took a different angle.

Instead, Huard said that Young will have to understand “you’ve got to play to your strengths.” And there’s one strength that the 6-foot-3, 304-pound Young has that you don’t see all that often.

“His strength is his long arms and his heavy hands,” Huard said. “I know some of this draft stuff we kind of mock and laugh at and scoff, like, ‘Oh, come on contact balance. Look at the bend, look at his speed and power.’ … We kind of make fun of some of that, but I’ll tell you what I think makes total sense – it’s almost like a crack of a bat. You can hear it and feel it, those guys that are heavy handed.”

Huard said that Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll, defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt and general manager John Schneider have all pointed to Young’s hands for a reason.

“When you hear Clint Hurtt say that and you hear Pete say that you hear John Schneider say that, what that means is he’s got 34 1/2 inch arms – long arms – and then he has just got these big anvils (for hands),” Huard said, “and when those things just hit you, you just kind of stop. He’s got them.”

.@cameron21young doing work 😤

📺: #NFLCombine March 2-5 on @NFLNetwork#HailState🐶 pic.twitter.com/2VrmSIkZD1

— Mississippi State Football (@HailStateFB) March 2, 2023

To Huard, that means Young will need to keep things simple as he plays in the middle of the Seahawks’ 3-4 defensive front.

“He’s gonna have to play to his strengths, not try to do everything, not try to be everything, and they will equip him and teach him. It sounds like he’s a very fast learner in that way. Because he even said that, I think, in his first press conference after rookie minicamp: ‘Hey, I’m not stunting, I’m not twisting, I’m not doing all this stuff.’ No, you’re not. No, you’re using your long arms, your base, your leverage, and those anvils for hands, and you’re shocking people and you’re stopping them so the guys behind you can do their job.”

Listen to Huard’s full thoughts in the Blue 88 segment from Friday’s Brock and Salk, which is the last segment in the podcast below. Blue 88, where Huard answers three football questions, airs live daily at 7:45 a.m. during each edition of Brock and Salk.

More from Huard on Seattle Seahawks rookies

• Seahawks’ seventh-round RB Kenny McIntosh could have big role
• How offensive guard Anthony Bradford must improve
• Three focuses for pass rusher Derick Hall to develop
• Where wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba has room to grow
• Charbonnet has fewest tweaks to make of all Seahawks rookies
• Three adjustments for top Seattle Seahawks pick Devon Witherspoon

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