Bradley Chubb’s Top 100 nod shouldn’t be overlooked
Bradley Chubb accomplished an impressive feat last week, though it likely flew under the radar of many.
Distracted by the QB battle and the Denver Broncos‘ controversial decision to name Teddy Bridgewater as the Week 1 starting quarterback, Bradley Chubb likely wasn’t on the minds of many in Broncos Country, as social media was dominated with the opinion of whether Drew Lock was disrespected, the current state of the franchise as a whole, and if this means that Drew Lock’s time in Denver is over.
We will have all season to discuss and debate the quarterback’s room. Let’s focus on Bradley Chubb for a few minutes.
In case you missed it, last week, as the NFL unveiled their Top 100 Players of 2020, Bradley Chubb came in at #40.
The concept of the Top 100 may not impress many. After all, it is NFL players voting their peers in and is often deemed by the public as a glorified popularity contest. However, the fact that Chubb was named in the upper half of the NFL’s 100 best by his peers, many earning spots on the list themselves, speaks a lot about what Bradley Chubb brings to the game of football and to his team.
Even more impressive? In his second appearance on the list, Bradley Chubb jumped up 42 spots from his #82 spot in 2019.
Even better than that? Bradley Chubb jumped 42 spots from his initial appearance on the list after coming back from an ACL injury sustained in the 2019 season, causing him to miss 12 games on the season and miss a spot on the list released in 2020.
“His power is what makes him special”, teammate and #82 on this year’s list, Garett Bolles, said.
“If you don’t handle this guy, he will disrupt your entire offensive game plan,” Patriots running back Damien Harris added.
Broncos Country doesn’t need a refresher on the fact that Bradley Chubb is a game wrecker–they’ve known since his rookie year. However, Chubb was able to remind the rest of the league in his dominant comeback in 2020.
Finishing the 2020 season coming off of an ACL injury with 7.5 sacks was a major accomplishment for the young pass rusher. Don’t be shocked to see even more in 2021, especially adding Von Miller back into the mix, who, following Chubb’s injury in 2019, missed the 2020 NFL season with an ankle injury.
Now that this unit is back to full health, expect this duo to finally come to fruition on what has been expected of them–the next Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware.
However, as for Bradley Chubb, the Top 100 may be meaningless to some fans, and even if that is true, fans should be encouraged and even inspired by this accomplishment for the young #55. An ACL injury is considered one of the most difficult sports injuries to recover from, and we have seen numerous players who have taken a couple of seasons or more to play at the same level they had been.
This was not the case with Bradley Chubb, who demonstrated in 2020 that he had the same dominance and ability to disrupt an offense and take over a game that he had displayed his rookie campaign.
The fact that Bradley Chubb played well enough to be placed in the top 50 best players at all positions in the NFL after coming off of an ACL injury is a tremendous honor, an inspiration, and attests to the kind of leader that Bradley Chubb is.
It’s also a pretty good sign that we have only seen the beginning of the talent Bradley Chubb will bring to the Denver Broncos’ defense.