Chubb’s heart will be missed more than his sacks
On the same morning Broncos general manager George Paton made the cold, hard cash decision that outside linebacker Bradley Chubb wasn’t valuable enough to be a core piece of this football team, Chubb pulled on his orange No. 55 jersey one last time and blessed Denver kids with a selfless act of charity.
Want to know one reason why the Broncos are stuck in a losers loop, missing the playoffs year after frustrating year?
It takes more than talent to build a championship team. It takes heart.
As the clock ticked Tuesday toward the NFL trade deadline, Chubb rolled out of bed after a long flight back from London, then traveled crosstown to Clayton Early Learning in the Park Hill neighborhood on his day off to pose for photographs with a young kid from a Head Start program.
“Although Bradley surely knew his days as a Denver Bronco were about to come to an end, there was not even a suggestion that he might cancel,” said William Browning, president and CEO at Clayton.
Chubb did more than dutifully show up at 11 a.m. to honor a commitment made weeks earlier, long before trade rumors began to simmer. He poured his heart into the event, “fully present and engaged, eager to help us and make the morning a memorable experience,” Browning said Thursday.
At the same time Chubb was donating his time and smile to the “Futures Grow Here” campaign, which embraces the unlimited potential in every child, Paton shrewdly pounded out the final details of a deal that sent an oft-injured linebacker to the Miami Dolphins in exchange for a first-round draft pick, fourthround pick and running back Chase Edmonds.
Although the blockbuster deal certainly made football and economic sense for Denver on the surface, what Paton also traded away were essential assets these Broncos lack even more desperately than future draft picks: A big generous heart, not to mention leadership looking to humbly serve, that Chubb brings to the field, locker room and community.
Hey, I get why the Broncos didn’t feel it was prudent to pay Chubb the five-year, $110 million extension the Dolphins gave a 26-year-old edge rusher who missed 24 games from 2019-21 for Denver with injuries.
But here’s the rub. With Chubb, there was more than his 5.5 sacks through eight games, not to mention his 25.8% passrush win rate, which ranks third-best in the NFL this season
r did you miss what teammate Dre’mont Jones had to say on Twitter shortly after the trade went down?
“I understand ‘It’s a business.’ We ALL get it,” commented Jones, a defensive lineman who figures to be among the prime beneficiaries of the salary cap wiggle room created by Chubb’s departure. “We get asked to buy in and care about the organization we work/play for, no matter the outcome of our situations. And this one hurts my heart like no other. Game day won’t feel the same without my G @astronaut.”
After being selected fifth overall in the 2018 draft, Chubb was never forgiven by Broncos Country for not being quarterback Josh Allen, taken by Buffalo two slots behind the edgerusher. In May, Chubb told me: “I didn’t get to where I am by worrying about how you or anybody else thinks about me,” then vowed to make his fifth NFL season the best of his career.
In a cramped locker room at Wembley Stadium on Sunday, whatever satisfaction Chubb took from a 21-17 victory against Jacksonville was masked by the it-is-what-it-is resignation of a player who could read the writing on the brick wall about to fall on his time in Denver.
By signing Randy Gregory to a five-year, $70 million contract and drafting Nik Bonitto to fortify the pass rush, Paton long ago sent a message to Chubb that his buy-in to help rookie coach Nathaniel Hackett succeed would not be reciprocated by loyalty from the Broncos.
Rather than mope, Chubb was an exemplary captain, producing like a top-five player among under-performing teammates whose shortcomings led to a 3-5 record that made Paton a seller at the trade deadline for a second straight year.
“The definition of a to
tal pro,” said Paton, when waving goodbye to Chubb.
While there’s no denying Paton has a sharp eye for talent, I wonder if he’s blind to the bigger picture. In tough times, glue guys keep a team from falling apart.
When everything about a team is a carousel spinning out of control, with change being the Broncos’ only real constant in recent years, from firing coaches and dumping Von Miller to doing the QB shuffle and auctioning off the Bowlen family business, it takes more than a spreadsheet weighing the pluses and minuses of a trade to fix a losing culture.
Paton has bet his arse and the future of this franchise on players like Russell Wilson, a quarterback who’s gone Hollywood, and Gregory, who might be the life of the party, but is almost 30 years old and has yet to reach his potential
Well, no disrespect to either Wilson and Gregory, but they rode into Denver as mercenaries in the of
ten heartless business of football. Part of their adjustment as team leaders is the time and effort required to put down roots in the Rocky Mountains.
I can’t guarantee Chubb will remain healthy enough to earn one more trip to the Pro Bowl, much less five. And I’m shrewd enough to believe the way Denver should’ve retained Chubb was to slap him with the franchise tag no player wants.
But this much I promise you: Chubb was as invested in Broncos Country as much as Broncos Country loves its NFL team.
“Depth of character is what distinguishes Bradley Chubb as a human being, and the business of football aside, he will be sorely missed in our community,” Browning said.
That’s the definition of a glue guy.
Make a habit of trading guys with big hearts that bleed orange and you can.forget about Denver getting back to the Super Bowl. The only place the Broncos will be headed is the glue factory.