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Denver Broncos pass rusher supreme, Von Miller, will likely get his A1 sidekick back in the lineup when the Broncos (1-0) travel to Jacksonville (0-1) to take on the Jaguars on Sunday, September 19.
Weakside outside linebacker Bradley Chubb is set to make his season debut against the Jags in Week 2, as ESPN’s Adam Schefter noted that Chubb “probably” returns.
Miller, who famously compared himself and defensive end Dre’Mont Jones to legendary NBA duo Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, now gets to play with his bookend partner in Chubb. If Miller and Jones are comparable to “ShaKobe,” then consider the 6-foot-4, 275-pound Chubb the NFL’s version of Joel Embiid, a physical specimen and freak of nature who could dominate every game — when healthy.
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The former NC State star came into the league as a wrecking ball, after being the fifth-overall pick by the Broncos in the 2018 NFL draft. Chubb tallied 12 sacks in his maiden season — the franchise’s single-season rookie mark, once held by Miller (11.5 sacks). The accolades started to accrue almost immediately after that, as he was deemed the 82nd-best player by his peers on the Top-100 player list in 2019, and then followed that up with a No. 40 ranking in 2021, after tallying 7.5 sacks and earning his first Pro Bowl appearance.
A Good Problem to Have
Getting Chubb back in the lineup could be a gift and a curse for fellow Broncos’ pass rushers, though.
The old pass-rush mantra of “meet me there, or beat me there,” will be on full display at Jacksonville’s TIAA Bank Field, as it’ll be a race to Jaguars rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence. Denver has multiple QB hunters in their rotation, meaning there could be a plethora of times when the 2021 No. 1 overall pick is taken down on the soggy turf. Now that Chubb is set to return, it’ll create even more one-on-one opportunities for guys like Miller, Jones, and reserve outside linebacker Malik Redd, a budding pass rusher who had eight sacks in 2020.
And if getting at Lawrence simultaneously means guys have to share sacks, so be it. But those hunters may not like sharing the glory too much. When Miller took down New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones, in the September 12 season opener, for his first sack in almost two years, Miller was a split-second ahead of Jones to receive full credit for the takedown.
Miller said he felt Jones’s pain.
“It really sucks when you get a really, really good rush — like, you get an amazing rush — and in your mind and your heart you’re like, ‘I’m about to get the quarterback,'” Miller said following a September 16 practice. “And then you just see somebody just run right in front of you and get the sack.”
That’ll be a good problem to have for the Broncos, because it means multiple guys are beating Jaguars’ offensive linemen off the ball.
Sharing is Caring?
Still, losing a sack — or even sharing it — isn’t always sweet.
Miller added that he’s felt the same way that Jones did, and recalled a time when he once had Kansas City Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes in his grasp, but the league recorded it as a half-sack. Miller lamented the statistic, but said he wasn’t about to rock the boat and petition the league office for full credit, because it wouldn’t have been worth it to take away credit from Chubb.
“I couldn’t put our relationship on the line and our friendship on the line by turning it in [to the league for review],” Miller said. “I didn’t want to put a strain on our friendship like that by being selfish, even though the sack was really supposed to be a whole sack by me.”
Chubb and Miller have to get along and mesh, considering the duo play the same position and are next to each other virtually every day in the positional room. Defensive end Shelby Harris, of course, is a different story, Miller reasoned.
The future Hall of Famer actually asked the league to review a sack following a Week 12 upset win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. Miller and Harris were each credited with half-sack of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, but this time, Miller wasn’t about share.
“I had beat my guy and I had grabbed ‘Big Ben’ and Shelby had come and jumped on the sack and they called it a half,” Miller said. “With me and Shelby, it’s not like me and Chubb — I had to turn that one in to get my full sack. Shelby had the pick that game to save it. … I just had to turn that one in.”
If all things go according to plan in Jacksonville, Broncos Country would be delighted in seeing the sacks rack up, shared or not.
Follow Tony Williams on Twitter: @TBone8
