The Miami Dolphins enter the 2024 NFL season with high hopes but need the defense to keep pace with a high-profile offense. However, a pair of outside linebackers won’t be ready from the starting blocks as they landed on the physically-unable-to-perform list, as reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Both Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips are coming off major late-season injuries, and their recoveries won’t allow them to get rolling at the start of training camp. No NFL player wants to be on the PUP list, but it also claimed guard Isaiah Wynn and outside linebacker Cameron Goode. Wynn and Goode also continue their recovery processes from 2023 injuries.
In a related note, running back Salvon Ahmed found himself designated to the active/non-football injury list. Ahmed’s injury is because of a minor medical issue unrelated to his season-ending foot injury in November.
Dolphins LB Bradley Chubb working his way back
Chubb suffered a torn right ACL injury on Dec. 31 in Baltimore. The Dolphins remain hopeful he can return some time during the first half of the season. However, they haven’t provided a timeline. Players typically need at least nine months to return from an ACL injury.
Clearly one of the NFL’s impact players, the 6-foot-4, 268-pound edge rusher, dominated with 11 sacks last season. He also added 70 quarterback pressures and 73 total tackles. A sixth-year, often-injured veteran, Chubb is one of the game’s better players when he’s healthy.
The Denver Broncos grabbed him with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. He produced 12 sacks that season and finished third in the AP defensive player of the year voting. Also, he played in all 16 games. But over the next three seasons, he totaled only 25 contests.
Chubb made it into game No. 16 last season before suffering the injury. Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel told the Associated Press he accepted responsibility for leaving Chubb on the field in the waning moments of the 56-19 loss to the Ravens.
“In hindsight, I would absolutely not have wanted him out there if I would’ve known that he was going to get hurt,” McDaniel said. “It doesn’t look very smart at all.”
And McDaniel told si.com earlier this year he’s not rushing Chubb to get back.
“Remember that line that I was talking to you guys about all season with Jalen Ramsey about no timelines?” McDaniel said. “So, after action report, since you guys didn’t want to bring it up, I think that worked well. No timelines. He came back faster than you guys thought.
“It’s also from a psychological standpoint. You don’t want people to chase the wrong things. I bring Jalen Ramsey up because both of those two individuals, Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips, are extreme versions of, ‘Hey, we need to make sure they aren’t chasing a timeline because as competitors, they will achieve that timeline and it might be at the worst for their bodies.’ So relative to timelines, we specifically don’t have those for those two.”
As for Phillips, he showed up on social media this week, looking spry in drills. Phillips, a 6-5, 263-pound fourth-year player told ESPN in April he would be ready for the season.
Wynn hasn’t recovered from a season-ending quadriceps injury last October while Goode suffered a torn patellar tendon in Week 17.
