BSN Exclusive: Why Bradley Chubb believes he’s taking his game to “a whole new level” in 2019

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DENVER — It’s easy to get caught up daydreaming about the damage Bradley Chubb can cause on opposing quarterbacks in 2019.

According to the head football coach, Vic Fangio, the former No. 5 overall pick is “tailor-made” for this defense.

Through 12 games during his rookie season, Chubb was on pace to break the NFL’s all-time rookie sack record.

From Week 6 to Week 14, an eight-game stretch, Chubb had 10.5 sacks. That production over the course of a 16-game stretch would lead to 21 sacks—only 1.5 shy of the all-time sack record held by Michael Strahan.

Chubb did all of this as a rookie. And that’s one of the biggest reasons why he believes 2019 can be much bigger and much better.

“Coming into your rookie year, you go from the season to a bowl game to training for the combine, to the combine to the Senior Bowl, all that type of stuff. Then to OTAs,” Chubb told BSN Denver, explaining the exhaustion rookies face due to a lack of an offseason. “The only break you really have is between June and July and that’s when you’re trying to get your mind right for camp.”

Not only do rookies have that grueling stretch that eliminates an offseason, they even have less of a summer break than veterans.

In fact, to give an example, the Broncos’ 2019 rookies had obligations—not practices—with the team through the week of June 17, while the veterans were set free two weeks before. The 2019 rookies will have roughly just over half a month off before starting the grind of training camp and the season.

To put this in perspective, veteran players typically have most of January off, all of February off and all of March off before reconvening for the offseason conditioning program. Then, they’ll have six weeks completely off in the summer.

Rookies, on the other hand, might have a few weeks off from the beginning of their college season until the start of NFL training camp.

“I feel like it’s a huge thing to come out of the season and fully unwind for one time,” Chubb stated. “I feel like it helped me out a lot coming into the OTAs. It made me eager. Made me want to get back to OTAs and minicamp. Eager to learn. I feel like it’s going to take us—not only me but the whole rookie class that we had last year—it’s going to put us to a whole new level this year.”

What’s “a whole new level” look like for the talented pass rusher?

Last year, Chubb had 12 sacks as a rookie. Certainly, he’s looking to build off that.

During Von’s second season, after posting 11.5 sacks as a rookie, he had the best year of his career posting 18.5 sacks. That’s no doubt a high bar, but Miller’s second season would prove that lofty goal is attainable, especially since Chubb had an even better statistical rookie season than Von.

“I’m setting the bar high,” the 6-foot-4, 269-pounder told BSN Denver. “I don’t really like talking about my personal goals in the media, but just know I’m setting the bar high. Trying to eclipse what I did last year and be a better player.”

Chubb’s clearly learned and taken after his mentor, Miller, as he, much like Von, won’t reveal his personal goals to the public.

While he’s keeping the exact numbers a secret, Chubb’s certainly not putting an end to anyone’s daydreams about his upcoming season. So, as Aerosmith would say, dream on.