The praise, the problem, and possibilities with Dolphins edge rushers
A position-by-position series breaking down each of the Miami Dolphins’ units, assessing where the team stands heading into the 2025 offseason, and examining what could possibly be done through free agency and the NFL draft. EDGE RUSHERS ▪ The praise: There’s very little praise that can be showered to this unit because of all the circumstances they had to overcame.
Bradley Chubb, who is one of the team’s four highest paid players, surprisingly sat out the entire 2024 season rehabbing the knee injury he suffered on New Years Eve of 2023.. Jaelan Phillips worked his way back from the Achilles injury that cut his 2023 season short in 10 months, and then suffered a season-ending knee injury in the season’s first month. Emmanuel Ogbah, who was cut last offseason but returned to the team after Shaquil Barrett surprisingly retired on the Dolphins the week before training camp, had a decent season. He contributing 49 tackles, five sacks, one interception and one forced fumble despite playing most of the year with a torn bicep. And rookie pass rusher Chop Robinson, the Dolphins’ 2024 first-round pick, blossomed as the year progressed, becoming one of the NFL’s most productive pressure generators per snap. Robinson finished 2024 with 26 tackles, six sacks in the 565 defensive snaps he played, but his struggles as a edge setter defending the run shouldn’t be ignored. ▪ The problem: The Dolphins finished 2024 with the NFL’s fourth best defense in yards allowed per game (314.4) and 10th in points allowed per game (21.4). The most impressive aspect of that achievement is Miami did it without much pressure or turnovers. Only five teams produced fewer sacks than the Dolphins (35), which should make you wonder what Miami’s defense would have been able to achieve with a steady amount of pressure generated.
Overall, Miami’s edge rushers contributed 13 of the team’s 35 sacks, and seeing as how the Dolphins were one of the NFL’s least productive sack producing defenses the goal should be to ensure productivity picks up. ▪ The possibilities: Not helping matters is the fact Miami has a bloated payroll, sitting $12 million over the cap heading into the start of the league new year with 49 players on the roster, 32 free agents, and a roster that looks like Swiss cheese because of the amount of holes that need to be filled. Miami has to find a way to create cap space and that might lead to the people in power making a couple of tough decisions with the top two edge rushers. Chubb is one of major decisions to make this offseason because the guaranteed money portion of his contract has concluded. Miami could make him a June 1 cut and clear $19.5 million in cap space. Problem with that approach is that the organization would have traded away a first and fourth round pick for a pass rusher they used for one and a half seasons. That’s just bad business. Miami could strong arm Chubb to restructure his deal, lowering the $20.2 million he’s expected to receiver in 2025 in base salary and bonuses. But Chubb would need to be motivated to do Miami that favor, especially since none of the final three years of his deal are guaranteed.
