New Orleans Saints draft Kentucky lineman Landon Young in sixth round
Kentucky under Mark Stoops has made a habit of producing NFL players out of underrated recruits, but Landon Young delivered his own brand of history for the Cats’ head coach.
The New Orleans Saints drafted Young, the first five-star recruit to sign with UK during Stoops’ tenure back in 2016, in the sixth round with the 206th overall pick of the NFL Draft on Saturday.
Young was the fifth Kentucky player drafted in this year’s event, following Jamin Davis, Kelvin Joseph, Quinton Bohanna and Brandin Echols.
Per 247Sports’ historical rankings, Young is the fourth-highest ranked player to sign with Kentucky since 2000 and the second-highest under Stoops (Kiyaunta Goodwin, an offensive tackle who recently committed to Kentucky, would supplant current Wildcat Justin Rogers as the highest-rated signee under Stoops if he signs in December.)
Lynn Bowden was a four-star athlete prospect coming out of high school. He was the highest-ranked high school recruit drafted out of Kentucky during Stoops’ tenure prior to Young’s selection; Bowden was picked in the third round of last year’s draft by the Las Vegas Raiders.
The selection also gave Lexington an NFL draft pick in back-to-back years for the first time since 1987-1988, and its 10th draft pick overall. Jedrick Wills, who was a class behind but played with Young at Lafayette High School, was drafted 10th overall by the Cleveland Browns in last year’s draft. Lexington in the 1980s produced eight players who spent time in the NFL; Young will be just the ninth since 1988 to hail from Kentucky’s second-largest city.
Young signed with Kentucky over offers from Alabama, Ohio State and an extensive list of other marquee programs. He was a key reserve as a true freshman in 2016 before starting six games at left tackle in 2017. Young missed the entirety of UK’s 2018 campaign due to a knee injury suffered during fall camp but returned to start the final 24 games of his career. He was named to the coaches’ first-team All-SEC as a senior and was named second-team All-SEC by the Associated Press and Phil Steele, and was captain of the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team in 2019.
He was among the pioneers on UK’s offensive line who transformed it into a staple of the program under the direction of the late John Schlarman. The “Big Blue Wall” helped Kentucky set multiple school rushing records in 2019 following an historic 10-3 season in 2018, and in 2020 was a semifinalist for the Joe Moore Award for the third time in the last five seasons.
“A lot of places don’t see offensive line play as something that’s exciting or something you want to go and do, but I think UK made it to where offensive line looks fun, That it’s not always just all the blame and everything.” Young told the Herald-Leader in March. “You can go out there and be dominant. You can be a close-knit group. We’re probably the most diverse group in the whole building but somehow we’re the closest group in the whole building. I think that’s part of the reason why we were so dominant over the years, is we were so close and wanted to fight for the guys next to us.”
Young’s physical stature — 6-6, 310 pounds — projects favorably to the NFL but there were concerns about his athleticism and pass-blocking ability leading up to the draft. There’s a belief that he could be moved to guard at the next level, which could ease some of those worries depending on team personnel.
“Young was a standout for Kentucky’s offensive line,” Pro Football Network analyst Ian Cummings wrote. “The Kentucky offensive tackle deserves consideration as a depth tackle, and he possesses enough size and athleticism to potentially develop into a starting offensive lineman.”
This story was originally published May 1, 2021 at 4:40 PM.
