One of the standout side stories in the Miami Dolphins‘ offseason program from this past week’s minicamp is the trio of pass rushers Bradley Chubb, Jaelan Phillips, and Chop Robinson.

Heading into 2025, Phillips is ready to go after injuries in each of the past two seasons. Last year was also a full season of rehab for Chubb following a Week 17 knee injury in 2023.

Advertisement

Chubb and Phillips were a terrific tandem in their eight games together in 2023. Phillips was on his way to a career season and on a five-game sack streak in which he totaled six in that span leading into Week 13.

Chubb finished the 2023 campaign with 11 sacks prior to his late-season injury. The veteran had a four-game sack streak to his credit as well as a three-sack performance in Week 15 against the New York Jets during that 2023 season.

Ironically, that was the same Jets team that Phillips suffered his Achillies injury against a few weeks earlier.

Through their injuries, Chubb and Phillips motivated each other in their rehabilitations.

Advertisement

“I think we both played a big role for each other, just in the sense of being there for each other during these times. Obviously, he’s someone whose dealt with several injuries in the past, but ACL specific questions, I do ask him a lot because he’s done three ACLs. I ask him about different things and he’ll kind of give me feedback and tell me how I’m looking and stuff. Same thing, it’s like some good reassurance that I’m in a good place,” Phillips said.

The duo now combines with a second-year, star in the making. Of course, Robinson hasn’t yet played with Chubb, and he played just four games with Phillips last season.

The 2024 first-round selection out of Penn State was developing in the first half of the season and didn’t start rolling until around Week 9 when he registered his first career sack against the Buffalo Bills. As a solo artist without a true bookend as his teammates were recovering, Robinson finished the season as one of the best young pass-rushers in the NFL, totaling six sacks to rank second among 2024 rookies.

However, he had veteran tutelage from Chubb.

Advertisement

“I was just his eyes off the field. Whatever I saw on the sideline, whatever I saw on the film, we’d sit down and watch it together. Not even just his film, we would watch just random d-ends from around the league and just see how they approach the game, how they play, because I feel like that helped me early in my career, just seeing how other people played the game, how they played certain blocks and stuff like that.

“So I just kind of went through stuff like that with him, and then during game days, just told him what I saw on the sideline compared to what he saw on the field and kind of just collaborated our mindsets throughout that part and tried to help him play as fast as possible without really thinking,” Chubb said.

Robinson now morphs that Chubb-Phillips tandem into a trio. And, with all three locked and loaded heading into training camp, there is incredible potential for the Dolphins‘ pass-rush. Phillips is certainly excited.

“We’ve been talking about it since Chop got here, for real. But it’ll be cool to actually get to do it. Also just another year under the belt for our defense under ‘Weave,’ getting the plays together.

Advertisement

“Chop has been having a hell of a OTAs. His improvement from last year to this year is like so noticeable, it’s insane. Especially if you really know the nitty gritty of it, so I’m really proud of Chop, really excited to see how he’s going to keep progressing,” Phillips said.

Perhaps Chubb put it best when meeting with Miami media on Wednesday.

“It’s been dope, because those two guys, they put their head down and work and get to it. They don’t take a play off, they don’t take a rep off. When you’ve got guys like that that push you constantly, you can only go up,” Chubb said.

“You can only get better from that, so just having those two around knowing what they can do on the field and seeing how they put the work in to get to that point, too, is amazing.”

This article originally appeared on Dolphins Wire: Healthy returns form Dolphins’ pass-rushing trio entering 2025