Miami Dolphins pass rushers Bradley Chubb and Cameron Goode have spent the last 11 months rehabbing together. They’ll spend the next week practicing — and potentially playing — together.
Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel announced Monday that the 21-day practice window for Chubb and Goode will begin Wednesday. Both have spent the first 14 weeks of the NFL season on the physically unable to perform list after suffering major late-2023 season knee injuries that needed reconstructive surgery.
Can they help turn around a Dolphins’ pass rush that was totally ineffective in their Thanksgiving night loss to the Green Bay Packers? Or is it too little, too late to salvage 2024?
Miami Dolphins’ Bradley Chubb, Cameron Goode Near Return
McDaniel did his best to temper expectations when announcing that Chubb and Goode will practice this week during his Monday news conference.
“Those are very impactful, just to have them on the practice field,” McDaniel said. “That’s never lost on teammates when you have an extensive injury that happens in-season.
“So then you are finishing the season rehabbing, the offseason program they’re watching them rehab, the beginning of the season, they’re watching them rehab. While everyone’s on vacation, they are here rehabbing. So it’ll be exciting to get their windows started and they’ll be practicing on Wednesday.”
Emotional lifts are great. On-field productivity is even better.
And the Dolphins need an infusion of talent at pass rusher. Through Sunday’s games, they have the NFL’s second-fewest sacks (21). And Miami’s pass rush went from shaky to borderline nonexistent in the cold in Green Bay.
They didn’t have a sack and managed just three quarterback hits in 119 combined pass-rushing snaps this past Thursday, with a team pressure rate of 10.1%.
Chubb, assuming he can produce at anywhere close to the level he did in 2023, could be a game-changer. He had 11 sacks and 70 pressures in 445 pass-rush snaps last year (15.7% rate). And Goode (four pressures in 38 pass rush snaps in 2023) should help, too, albeit to a lesser degree.
Will they play Sunday against the New York Jets? That seems ambitious. But it’s not hard to envision one or both being in the lineup in Houston in Week 15 — assuming the Dolphins win this Sunday.
It’s also not inconceivable that if the Dolphins play their way out of playoff contention before Chubb and Goode are ready, they will shut both down for the entire season instead of putting them at risk of another injury.
“Guys that are sacrificing day-in, day-out, right in front of you, just having them to start practice, that in itself beyond the players, but the people, you don’t take as much for granted when you’re out there watching them go through it,” McDaniel said.
“… I know those two won’t take any practice rep for granted. I think that, just in general, it is an added lift, regardless of what happens between the lines on Sunday.”