Dolphins GM: Team Anticipates Near-Future Bradley Chubb Extension

After taking another big trade swing for a veteran Tuesday, the Dolphins do not have a first-round pick in 2023. But they hope to follow their Tyreek Hill extension with a Bradley Chubb deal soon.

Chris Grier said he believes a long-term Chubb accord will come to pass soon. Chubb is in the final year of his Broncos rookie contract, playing out a fifth-year option worth $12.716MM. Illustrating Chubb’s market value, the Dolphins are picking up the remainder of the edge rusher’s option salary, Mike Klis of 9News tweets. That undoubtedly led to the Dolphins including Chase Edmonds‘ two-year, $12MM contract in Tuesday’s deal. Miami held barely $6MM in cap space before the trade; Chubb is on the Dolphins’ payroll at just more than $7MM.

“When you do a deal like that for a player, you always would like to — from our perspective, when we do business — we would like to have something done,” Grier said, via Pro Football Talk’s Myles Simmons. “And we anticipate having something finished up here shortly.”

Miami traded first- and fourth-round picks to the Broncos for Chubb, including Edmonds in the swap. The team filled Edmonds’ role by reuniting Mike McDaniel with Jeff Wilson. Grier said he and Broncos GM George Paton — once coworkers with the Dolphins during the 2000s — began discussing Chubb weeks ago but noted conversations became serious after the Broncos returned from London.

Grier and Paton, both 52, worked together from 2001-06 with the Dolphins, prior to Paton leaving for Minnesota. Grier said (via Local10.com’s David Lang) he did extensive homework on Chubb’s injury history. The former No. 5 overall pick has missed 24 career games — due mostly to a 2019 ACL tear and two 2021 ankle surgeries. Chubb has not missed any time this season, registering 5.5 sacks in eight Broncos games.

The Broncos discussed Chubb with more than 10 teams, driving his price up. That eclipses the suitor volume of last year’s Von Miller sweepstakes. The Broncos needed to pick up most of Miller’s contract-year salary to land second- and third-round picks from the Rams, but the future Hall of Famer was in his age-32 season in 2021. Chubb is 26. Paton said (via Klis, on Twitter) a first-round pick needed to be included for him to sign off on unloading Denver’s latest contract-year edge standout.

Chubb has not accomplished anything close to what Miller has, but his Dolphins contract will eclipse the future Hall of Famer’s Bills free agency deal for AAV. Six edge defenders now earn at least $20MM on average. Miller is in that club, though the nonguaranteed years of his Buffalo deal moved the AAV to $20MM. Chubb can probably push to top Maxx Crosby‘s $23.5MM-per-year price, considering what the Dolphins paid in the trade and the salary cap set to spike again after its 2021 dip.

The Broncos are the first team to collect a first-round pick for an edge rusher since the Seahawks obtained one in a 2019 deal that sent Frank Clark to the Chiefs. The Dolphins are the first team to surrender a first-rounder for a defender in-season since the Rams dealt two for Jalen Ramsey later in 2019. Miami also collected a first-rounder for a defender during the ’19 season, having dealt Minkah Fitzpatrick to the Steelers that September.

Like they did with Hill, the Dolphins are betting big on a veteran. Miami entered training camp with two 2023 first-round picks. Both are now gone, with the other (the Dolphins’ original 2023 first-rounder) stripped because of the Tom Brady–Sean Payton tampering scandal. The pick sent to Denver for Chubb is the one obtained in last year’s Trey Lance swap with San Francisco.

It will be interesting to see if the Dolphins move forward with a Chubb deal before he takes the field with his new team. They greenlit Hill’s receiver-record $30MM-per-year pact the day they acquired him from the Chiefs. Chubb signing now would also protect him against another injury affecting his value. But any scenario in which the Dolphins do not sign Chubb before free agency would likely lead to a franchise tag.