Projected to Sign $150 Million Deal, Byron Young Once Worked at Burger King and Dollar General to Make Ends Meet

When Aaron Donald first retired, fans and analysts alike figured that it would be a while, if ever, before the Los Angeles Rams would find a defensive player who was capable of generating just as much chaos. Well, it turns out that they didn’t need to wait that long at all, as their third-round investment in Byron Young has already begun to pay dividends for both the Rams organization and the 27-year-old star.

After immediately finishing seventh overall in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting in 2023, Young has since managed to become a Pro Bowler in his own right, and now serves as one of the focal points of the Rams defense. Simply put, he’s more than outpaced the four-year, $5.5-million contract that was signed back in the summer of 2023, but you’ll never hear him complain about it on account of his humble origins.

The Tennessee product, who is currently projected to sign a contract extension with an approximate value of $150 million, recently noted that he used to work 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 Sunday’s, putting up top-1o sack numbers while somehow managing to lead the league in safeties in 2024.

By the time he reaches his fourth season in the NFL, he’ll have already become one of the higher paid defenders in the history of the league, suggesting that the Rams may have found yet another Hall of Fame defender. Of course, there’s still a lot of hurdles to clear and tackles to make before Young can begin to actually make that argument, but there’s no denying that he’s gotten off to the right start.

The clock may be working against him a bit in terms of his age, but given the amount of production and consistency that he was able to provide for the Rams all throughout the regular season and run up to the NFC Championship, you’d be hard pressed to find someone who’s willing to argue that Young hasn’t deserved 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, and the moment in which 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.