The Bradley Chubb Question the Lions Can’t Ignore

If there's one thing that Detroit Lions fans really want, it's an edge rusher. They want to so bad they can taste it. At times they want it so badly that they'll throw any name out there or try to make it happen. Today's name is Bradley Chubb.

But is Bradley Chubb still Bradley Chubb?

I mean, that's where this whole thing starts right? At the onset, it looks super easy. Chubb is a two-time Pro Bowler, and he just had 70 pressures and 13 sacks in 2023. This dude was really good. But then he missed the 2024 season after tearing his ACL at the end of the 2023 season. In 2025, he came back and he did not at all look like the player that he was before the injury.

Don't just take it from us, though. We talked with our Miami Dolphins beat writer, Kyle Crabbs, about Chubb, and here's what he had to say:

"I really respect the way that Bradley Chubb pulled himself back from the brink after a devastating 2023 knee injury. He managed to play as a functional pass rusher and logged strong sack numbers after missing all of 2024. But he was, undoubtedly, not showing the same kind of explosiveness that made him an early first-round draft choice back in 2018. And Chubb, who turns 30 years old this summer, is unlikely to get any more juice as he enters the later stages of his career."

"Chubb is an outstanding leader. He's got good toughness and can still collapse the pocket off the edge. But the burst and bend aren't what they were, and if you're hoping for a needle-moving player, you may be barking up the wrong tree. He'd be best served transitioning into a rotational role to play on early downs before potentially ceding to on long & late downs to a more twitchy, explosive rush threat."

So we know that Chubb doesn't fit as a starter, but what about rotational? That's the thing. The Lions already have a 30-year-oldrotaitonal edge rusher that they can sign for a lower price and is coming off the best season of his career. That's Al-Quadin Muhammad. You definitely want to go this route if you're Detroit. Just the savings alone make it a better move.

The Lions would be much better served by looking to fill their next edge rusher in the 2026 NFL Draft. There really aren't many good options in free agency worth pinning a lot of money on, and the Lions probably aren't trading for Maxx Crosby or something like that. So that's our thoughts on Chubb. Not the best move for the Lions.