Bradley Chubb is the Miami Dolphins‘ newly minted PFN Midseason Defensive Player of the Year after a marvelous opening half to 2023. Chubb, in his first full season with the Dolphins, ranks first on the team in forced fumbles (4), sacks (6), and tackles for loss (7). He’s also top three on the team in hurries (4), pressures (15), quarterback hits (10), and QB knockdowns (6). But it wasn’t so long ago that there were real questions about the wisdom of Chris Grier’s blockbuster trade that brought Chubb to Miami. Chubb got off to a terribly slow start in Miami, recording 3.5 sacks and five tackles for loss in his first 13 games in aqua and orange. (He did record 17 quarterback hits over that stretch). Revisiting the Miami Dolphins’ Bradley Chubb Trade He expected and demanded more from himself. “Like I said earlier in the season, I just didn’t feel like I was making that big of an impact on the field, and I was kind of letting it get to me,” Chubb said Tuesday. “I’m supposed to be this guy and all that. But that’s when I had to look at the man in the mirror and understand, hey man, ‘You do this. It’s not about what people who put expectations on you; it’s not about that. It’s about what you know you can do and how you prepare to do that.’ “I just started tapping into that a lot more, and I did that; I started bringing guys along with me,” Chubb added. “I feel like that’s kind of shifted the energy for all of us as a defense. It’s allowed us to grow better because everybody had that same mindset of looking in the mirror and understanding what they need to do better. It allows all of us to grow.” Chubb has fought through a frustrating start to his Dolphins tenure and is playing some of the best football of his career. And for the first time, he’s making the king’s ransom the Dolphins surrendered to acquire him at the 2022 trade deadline — RB Chase Edmonds, the No. 29 overall pick of the 2023 NFL Draft and a fourth-rounder in 2024, not to mention the $110 million contract extension that came with it — look like solid value. Chubb’s $22 million AAV is sixth among all outside linebackers, trailing only: T.J. Watt, Steelers ($28 million) Joey Bosa, Chargers ($27 million) Montez Sweat, Bears ($24.5 million) Rashan Gary, Packers ($24 million) Khalil Mack, Chargers ($23.5 million) Chubb’s production matches up favorably with all of them. No player, regardless of position, has forced more fumbles, and Chubb is in the top 20 league-wide in sacks. Slim Pickings in Draft, Free Agency Now that we’ve established that Chubb’s compensation is in line with his production, let’s take a quick moment to look at what the Dolphins could have done with the resources they dedicated to acquiring and keeping him. Grier made the trade with the understanding that Chubb would be better than any pass rusher the Dolphins would have been able to get in 2023 free agency or the draft. Turns out, he was right. As we show here, there were no good options at that particular position beginning with the 29th pick. 2023 NFL Draft No. 29: DT Bryan Bresee (1.5 sacks, 3 TFLs, 5 PDs) No. 30: LB Nolan Smith (1 sack, 1 TFL, 2 QB hits) No. 31: DE Felix Anudike-Uzomah (.5 sacks, 5 QB hits, 1 FF) No. 32: CB Joey Porter Jr. (1 INT, 4 PDs, 70.6 passer rating against) No. 33: QB Will Levis (60.3%, 4 TDs, 1 INT, 7.4 Y/A, 96.4 rating) No. 34: TE Sam LaPorta (43 catches, 434 yards, 4 TDs) No. 35: TE Michael Mayer (13 catches, 159 yards, 0 TDs) No. 36: G Steve Avila (9 starts, 2 sacks allowed, 2 penalties) No. 37: OLB Derick Hall (0 sacks, 4 QB hits, 1 TFL) No. 38: G Matthew Bergeron (9 starts for Falcons, 2 sacks allowed, 3 penalties) As for free agency, that would have been wasted money. Here are the six highest-paid pass rushers of the 2023 class: Dre’Mont Jones ($17.2M AAV): 2 sacks, 4 TFLs Zach Allen ($15.9M): 3 sacks, 6 TFLs Marcus Davenport ($13M): 2 sacks, 2 TFLs Yannick Ngakoue ($10.5M): 2 sacks, 4 TFLs Larry Ogunjobi ($9.6M): 2 sacks, 2 TFLs Samson Ebukam ($8M): 4 sacks, 6 TFLs In short, the Dolphins spent big resources to address one of their biggest needs, and Chubb has rewarded that commitment with a Pro Bowl-caliber season. He was the best of all options available to the Dolphins, who have zero regrets at this point about making the move. “I think Bradley Chubb represents everything that I believe in,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said this week. “… Since the second he’s been here, he’s felt the responsibility to the organization to make right of our investment into him. I think as he’s found his niche and his role within the defense, he’s been able to exorcise some of the pressure demons that he self-imposes because it’s really important to him that he does right by the organization. “… And I think you have a chance as an organization when the people that you select to pay a good portion of your salary cap to, that they take that for what it is and it’s a responsibility heavy is the crown. And he’s in a really cool spot now because he’s allowing the game to come to him and understanding that all this team needs from him is his 100 percent commitment each and every day, which he exercises on the daily.”
He does great with skill players in free agency or trades…if ONLY he could do the same with offensive linemen in the draft.
Yeah, this team is almost complete. Need TE, LB and OL and we're set. I think the first two Grier can maybe do something in FA. Then he can spend high draft capital on OL. Statistically, OL is the safest position to draft in the 1st and 2nd rounds, so even Grier will come out with something if we can take care of the others in FA.
“Statistically” that may be true, but historically the Dolphins OL has been garbage for the last 20+ years. We haven’t had a line that’s been able to physically dominate the line of scrimmage. If THAT one piece of the puzzle could ever be solved, we’re going to be able to rush for 5000 yards a game and Tua’s going to have a minute or two to sit back in the pocket each play.
I don't think we need much more. The one thing we never had during the last 20+ years was a high powered passing game. The pass opens up the run, which we're seeing already. But the OL needs to get a tad bit better to give us a more consistent running game. Trying to dominate the line of scrimmage is too tall an order. That requires too many extra pieces. At least it's too much to ask for in one offseason. I think dominating on offense is sufficient, and for that I don't think you need more than 1-2 improvements on OL. Oh, and a really good TE would change everything. I know.. hard to find, but still.
This is where you and I have philosophically disagreed for years. If you get a dominant offensive line, that opens holes for the running game and gives your quarterback a clean pocket to work in. We have the skill players. We have the quarterback, we have the receivers, we have the running backs. All we need offensively is that line that dominates in the trenches. If we get that, there’s nothing stopping us on offense.
I'm not disagreeing that it would be nice to have that. I'm saying it's unrealistic in one offseason. However, it's definitely true you can have a dominating offense without a great OL. Many have demonstrated this. So if you are resource constrained (as all teams are), then at this point you have to ask whether it's better to throw all resources into the OL, or divide it among TE, LB and OL. I think the latter is the better choice because we have some weaknesses on defense too, and a good TE can totally change what's needed on the OL. Either way, we're in a much better place than we used to be. We're close, and there are many ways to complete this team.
Brock Bowers would be a spectacular weapon in this offense, but he will be long gone by the time we make our pick.
Yeah it's worth emphasizing: a TE like Kelce makes this offense almost impossible to defend, and a LB like Parsons makes our defense top 5. So one possible strategy for Grier is to treat a potential elite TE or elite LB like a potential franchise QB by trading what you need to in order to pick that guy. Not saying that's definitely better than trying to improve TE, LB and OL incrementally, but if you do hit on an elite TE or elite LB it might be worth more. Very interesting offseason coming up.
Question- and it's fine if you don't know the answer. You're always my math problem guy though, LOL. Tua is obviously getting a significant contract next year. Waddle will be getting a nice raise as well (maybe in 2025) and we're paying Tyreek, Ramsey, and X already. Most of our roster is budget-friendly but we're already at the cap. Can we keep this team largely in-tact for the next 3 to 5 seasons to make a dynasty run? Or will this roster start to crumble? I'm not as worried about filling those final few positions (we can through the draft and FA) as I am keeping this roster intact. What are our chances?
I'm decent at math, but I have never paid attention to contract related stuff. Some others here do however. Maybe they can provide a good answer. However, we have seen GMs get creative with contracts many times, so I'm not worried. Great test for Grier though.
If the Saints have shown us anything, its that it is pretty easy to manipulate the cap. When we sign Tua to a long-term deal, it will likely be structured to provide cap relief in the initial year. We can also restructure the contracts of players like Tyreek, Ramsey and Chubb to lower their cap hits by extended the deal with actual or voidable years. I wouldn't do this with X as I think age may be catching up with him. Cutting Ogbah next year also would create some relief, particularly if its a post June cut.
The Saints have had serious cap issues for several years now and just keep reworking contracts with voidable years. They never really blew up the team to address the cap issues (like we did in Flores first year) and continue to just kick the can down the road. Here is a pretty good but dated article on it https://www.yahoo.com/now/many-saints-players-franchise-tag-193624552.html
