Boasting 'Intangibles to Be Great,' Former Coach Believes Dareke Young Poised For Success With Seahawks
HICKORY, NC - After spending a year at Valparaiso, a Division I FCS program, receivers coach Devin Figaro took a step back down to the Division II ranks when he accepted a job on a new staff at Lenoir Rhyne in December 2019.
Joining the Bears under new head coach Mike Jacobs, Figaro likely didn't expect to inherit any future NFL players as part of his latest coaching gig. But even before he had a chance to see him on the practice field, it didn't take long for him to notice Dareke Young wasn't like everyone else in his receiving corps.
"He was one of the first guys that the whole staff met, so when we came in - these guys were on break - few guys were in town. Dareke was actually the first player that I met, and initially, it was just his stature, his physique [that stood out]," Figaro said. "He had a letterman jacket on then, but you could still see that he had a nice frame to him. Tall cat."
At the time, while he was impressed by his physique and his maturity, Figaro had no idea Young would eventually become a seventh-round draft choice for the Seahawks. And considering where he had come from only a few years earlier, nobody else could have foresaw him developing into a legitimate NFL talent either.
Starring at Middle Creek High School, Young received minimal recruiting interest from college programs and based on his size, athletic profile, and production, it's not hard to see why he slipped under the radar. As a senior, he weighed just 174 pounds and ran a slow 4.99-second 40-yard dash. On the field, a broken leg cost him a large portion of his final season and he finished his prep career with 29 receptions for 502 yards and five touchdowns.
With few options to choose from, Young committed to Lenoir Rhyne, the one program that had maintained strong interest throughout his recruitment. In his first three collegiate seasons, he shined as a dual-threat gadget weapon in a modernized Wing-T offense, snagging 34 receptions for 655 yards and 10 touchdowns as a receiver and rushing 87 times for 653 yards and eight touchdowns as a running back.
When Jacobs took over the program after the 2019 season, the offense shifted towards a spread offense. With Figaro serving as his positional coach, while he would still occasionally run the ball on jet sweeps and continue to play on special teams, Young's days moonlighting as a running back were over and he moved into a full-time receiver role for the Bears.
"When I got in, he was a little raw from running the offense that those guys have ran before. The previous staff had his hand in the dirt a little more than we obviously had him in our offense, so [we were] just trying to shake the rust off a little bit," Figaro said of Young's transition.
Unfortunately, Figaro would have to wait to see how Young would develop specializing as a receiver in a new offensive system under his tutelage. After the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States in March 2020, while most major Division I programs found a way to play at least a modified schedule, programs from smaller divisions such as Lenoir Rhyne did not have a fall season.
Instead, the Bears wound up scheduling a short season in the spring, playing a total of four games. Young appeared in only two of those contests, but even amid a small sample size, Figaro and the rest of the coaching staff witnessed a performance rarely seen from a player at the Division II level that fully showcased his NFL-caliber talent.
Making the most of his coming out party, Young torched Tusculum in the SAC Championship Game, snagging nine receptions for 166 yards and a touchdown. Though the Pioneers wound up beating the Bears on the scoreboard in a 28-23 victory, they didn't have an answer for him, as he dominated their secondary throughout the contest.
"Dareke can do it all," Figaro gushed. "He can run routes, he can carry the ball, and so we married that part out with the run game and turned them into fly sweeps, the jet motions, the short screens, using his explosive ability and also taking a couple of shots. And so when you got a guy that can do all that, especially at our level, it's just that much better for us and able to marry that up with the run game and helps us out."
As noted by Figaro, despite his gaudy production in those two games, Young was far from perfect in his limited spring season. He dropped a couple of passes in the loss to Tusculum, but he didn't let those mistakes rattle him or derail his confidence.
With the player able to focus on one position for the first time in his college career and inspired by former teammate Kyle Dugger being drafted by the Patriots, Figaro watched Young make major strides from a technique standpoint. Calling him arguably the hardest working player he had ever coached, Young absorbed new instruction like a sponge, quickly incorporating everything he learned into his game, and those improvements were put on display during an unusual spring season.
"As a coach, you want to try to introduce different things to guys and when you go through individual work, you want that to relate and translate over to team activities and Dareke picked everything up really fast," Figaro explained. "He started to eliminate some of the stuff that was tendencies for DBs to pick up on like running more high knee depending on your top end, how you how you're coming in and out of your break and your weight on the instep, more emphasizing chest over knees so you can't get that pressure on your instep to push off and get out of your routes faster."
Away from technical refinement on the field, Young also remained an ardent student of the game in the classroom, picking up the new offensive system without a hitch writing tedious notes during team meetings and taking younger receivers under his wing. Figaro took notice, though he never could quite figure out his coding system.
"Just a leader on and off the field," Figaro said of Young. "He's not a guy that's gonna be a rah rah guy like getting your face when you mess it up or something like that. He'll take it on the side, kind of coach you up, let you know how it's done, and then kind of lead more by example from there and that's the biggest thing that stood out for me."
Though an MCL injury limited him to just five games as a senior last season, Young continued to put his name on the map for NFL scouts. Seeing snaps out of the slot as well as X and Z spots on the outside, he exploded for eight receptions, 160 receiving yards, and three touchdowns in a victory over Mars Hill and wrapped up the season with 25 receptions for 303 yards and four scores, earning Second-Team All-SAC honors.
Once the season concluded, Young ramped up training for the NFL Draft and eventually participated in Charlotte's pro day in April. Even with winds gusting towards him, he ran an official 4.44 40-yard dash at 6-foot-2, 224 pounds. Additionally, he exhibited outstanding change of direction skills with a sub-7.00 3-cone drill and posted a 37-inch vertical jump in front of scouts for several teams, including the Seahawks, who he met with weeks later on a top-30 visit.
To put his workout in perspective, per Pro Football Reference, only three receivers - Julio Jones, Tyrone Calico, and Miles Boykin - standing at least 6-foot-2 and weighing at least 220 pounds have posted such numbers at the NFL combine since 2000.
Thanks to a scintillating workout Seahawks general manager John Schneider described as "off the charts" moments after the team drafted him at No. 233 overall, Young's transformation from a mere Division II curiosity into a legitimate NFL prospect was now complete. And according to Figaro, he ran in the 4.3s while training at Exos, so his numbers could have been better under normal weather conditions.
Not too shabby for a former unranked recruit who had minimal interest from college programs before committing to Lenoir Rhyne in 2017.
"He's a guy that he'll do whatever you ask of him in terms of what the program asks," Figaro said of Young. "Coach Caldwell, our strength coach, does a hell of a job. They kind of stick to a strict plan. These guys come from high school to college and when you get to college, you're eating a lot more because you have access to the cafeteria as many times as you want. You've got the nutrition center with the weight room, so these guys get protein and all these things pre and post-workout and you just lifting a lot more as well. So you part that with a guy that's got the frame to put on good weight and get strength and you get a guy like Dareke. He kind of surprised me."
Like any Division II prospect aiming to make it in the NFL, Young will face a steep jump in competition with the Seahawks and it won't be easy making the 53-man roster in September. Headlined by stars DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, the team has an abundance of talent and depth in their receiving corps, and the arrival of fellow seventh-round selection Bo Melton crowds the depth chart even further.
But at the same time, regardless of where he played his college ball at, Young will break into the league possessing a rare combination of size, athleticism, and versatility that few others can match. On top of that, with an engineering and physics degree from Lenoir Rhyne in hand, he also has a fantastic head on his shoulders to go with his intriguing physical tools.
After coaching him for the past two seasons, while outstanding athletic traits led to him being drafted, Figaro believes Young's mindset will be what ultimately separates him from the pack as he pursues a lengthy career in the NFL. Always composed, always grinding, and always focused on the fine details necessary to be great, he expects his former pupil will endear himself to the coaching staff and 12s in Seattle in no time.
"They're gonna get a guy that busts his butt every single day and he'll do more than what's asked, not just just was just asked in terms of a meeting and things like that. You'll see him out there on the field getting extra work, grabbing the quarterbacks, asking questions, coming in and getting more meeting time one on one with the coaches and that's what's most impressive about him because he's got that nature and that stature already, the intangibles to be great. He's hungry, and that's what's what I love about Dareke."
