When Aaron Donald retired in 2024 March, the football world figured it would be a while, if ever, before the Los Angeles Rams found a defensive player capable of generating as much chaos. Enter Byron Young, their third-round investment in the 2023 NFL Draft.
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Young finished seventh in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting in 2023. Since then, he has managed to become a Pro Bowler and now serves as one of the focal points of the Rams’ defense. Young has clearly outpaced the four-year, $5.5-million contract that was signed back in the summer of 2023.
However, you’ll never hear Young complain about it on account of his humble origins. The Tennessee product, currently projected to sign a contract extension with an approximate value of $150 million, recently revealed that he used to work in fast food and retail jobs in order to support his own dreams.
While working at Burger King, he found a potential pathway to success via Georgia Military College’s football tryouts. As the saying goes, the rest was history.
Young now finds himself as a fan favorite on NFL Sundays, putting up top-10 sack numbers. He had also managed to lead the league in safeties in 2024.
By the time Young reaches his fourth season in the NFL, he will have already become one of the highest-paid defenders in the history of the league. Looks like the Rams may have found yet another Hall of Fame defender.
Of course, there are still a lot of hurdles to clear and tackles to make before Young can begin to make that HoF argument. But there’s no denying that he’s gotten off to the right start.
HELL OF A STORY: #Rams star pass rusher Byron Young worked at BURGER KING before pursuing his football career.
⁰Young worked part-time jobs at Burger King and Dollar General before attending a tryout for the Georgia Military football team, where he made the team.
⁰After one… https://t.co/LNu0avKSs6 pic.twitter.com/WRVa84wpyW— MLFootball (@MLFootball) February 23, 2026
The clock may be working against the 27-year-old a bit in terms of his age. However, given the amount of production and consistency that he was able to provide for the Rams throughout the regular season and run up to the NFC Championship, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who’s willing to argue against Young. He deserves each and every penny that he is set to receive in the coming months.
Los Angeles is currently waiting to get the green light on Matthew Stafford’s return. The moment they do, it’ll be all hands on deck for one last title run. After which, there figures to be a period of uncertainty for the Rams, but that’ll become much easier to manage so long as they have this phenom of a Dollar General employee on their side.
