Dolphins Swallow the Chubb

Make no mistake about it, when healthy, OLB Bradley Chubb is one heckuva an edge pass rusher. Chubb is an imposing physical specimen at 6-4, 275 and, in this his 5th NFL season, he is only 26 years old.

However, due to a variety of injuries (bone chips in both ankles and an ACL tear), Bradley Chubb has missed 25 games thus far in his career, which accounts as one of the reasons why he has tacked up only 26 sacks in 4 ¹⁄₂ years.

This season, in good health, Chubb has accumulated 5.5 sacks and has the 3rd highest pass rush win rate in the NFL behind Micah Parsons and Myles Garrett.

Chubb is a solid run defender, but has a 22% missed tackle rate, which is why his name is not in this top Top.

The good news for the Dolphins is that their 2nd year edge dynamo, Jaelan Phillips, is one of only 2 edge players (Rashan Gary GB) thus far this season to appear on both lists.

Perusing Bradley Chubb’s PFF grades, just for sake of shiggs and gittles, here are his career averages thus far:

• Overall: 63.5
• Run Defense: 63.2
• Tackling: 39.8 (missed tackle rate in career thus far of 22.2%)
• Pass Rush: 68.4
• Coverage: 49.6

Yet, without seeing Bradley Chubb take a single game snap for his new team, the Dolphins went ahead and did this yesterday:

That is $23.8M a year for the next five years when at some point the Dolphins are very likely going to have to sign Jaelan Phillips to a lucrative second contract.

Now, we know that this off-season the Dolphins have gone hog-wild and made a ton of splash (pun) moves while ponying up massive contract figures. They certainly are a team on the rise and now Chubb and Jaelan Phillips form one of the more dynamic edge rushing duos in the NFL.

It was pointed out to me yesterday by astute ROTB member NFC2AFC that Bradley Chubb’s agent is none other than our old frenemy, Erik Burkhardt. Well, it looks like the Dolphins acted quickly to avoid a Burkhardt ransom note. (sarcasm)

If signing Bradley Chubb to a 5 year $119M deal with $63.2M guaranteed is what it was going to take for the Cardinals to trade their 1st and 4th round picks, plus one of their players in order to acquire Chubb (or maybe even a 1st and a 3rd rounder) —- then thank goodness the Cardinals did not swallow that bait.

Plus, while the Cardinals need to “get home’ more often on sacks, their pass rush win rate as a defense is very impressive:

Team pass rush win rate

1. Dallas Cowboys, 53%

2. Denver Broncos, 51%

3. Los Angeles Rams, 51%

4. Jacksonville Jaguars, 51%

5. Philadelphia Eagles, 51%

6. Arizona Cardinals, 50%

7. Green Bay Packers, 49%

8. Miami Dolphins, 49%

9. New York Jets, 46%

10. San Francisco 49ers, 45%

11. Kansas City Chiefs, 44%

12. Chicago Bears, 44%

13. Tennessee Titans, 43%

14. Houston Texans, 43%

15. Las Vegas Raiders, 43%

16. Cleveland Browns, 41%

17. Cincinnati Bengals, 41%

18. Atlanta Falcons, 41%

19. Baltimore Ravens, 41%

20. Carolina Panthers, 40%

21. Washington Commanders, 40%

22. New York Giants, 40%

23. Buffalo Bills, 40%

24. Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 40%

25. Minnesota Vikings, 39%

26. Seattle Seahawks, 38%

27. Pittsburgh Steelers, 36%

28. Indianapolis Colts, 36%

29. Los Angeles Chargers, 36%

30. New England Patriots, 34%

31. New Orleans Saints, 31%

32. Detroit Lions, 30%

I am still bewildered and completely frustrated that the Cardinals did not make some trades for a couple of much needed linemen and/or a tackling machine like Roquan Smith , but I am very thankful that they didn’t perform this kind of colossal over-pay for Bradley Chubb.

Do you agree?

On an interesting note, while I was researching the win rates for linemen, these percentages should be of keen interest to Cardinals’ fans:

• Team Pass Rush Win Rate Ranking: Cardinals- 6th
• Team Run Stop Win Rate: Cardinals – 27th
• Team Pass Block Win Rate: Cardinals – 8th
• Team Run Block Win Rate: Cardinals – 11th
• https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/34536376/2022-nfl-pass-rushing-run-stopping-blocking-leaderboard-win-rate-rankings-top-players-teams

Myth: “the Cardinals’ offensive line sucks.”

Myth:” the Cardinals’ pass rush sucks.”

What the Cardinals need most is better run stuffing and better run blocking.

Just sayin’, man.