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Former Broncos OLB Bradley Chubb impressed with how Russell Wilson handled criticism

Originally posted on 5 GOATs | By Suzanne Halliburton | Last updated 7/8/23

Bradley Chubb played only half a season with Russell Wilson. But he thinks most NFL fans got the Broncos quarterback so very wrong.

Wilson forced the Seahawks into trading him to Denver in March, 2022. The Broncos paid a ton in draft picks to acquire Wilson, the nine-time Pro Bowler, in hopes that the quarterback would change their offensive fortunes. Instead, for whatever reason, Wilson and the Broncos, as a team, were worse than before. The quarterback was an obvious scapegoat in a season that saw the Broncos fire their rookie head coach Nathaniel Hackett.

Meanwhile, the Broncos traded Chubb, their first-round pick in 2018, to the Dolphins last November. Tyreek Hill, Miami’s top receiver, also does a popular podcast. Chubb was a guest this past week. Hill asked the obvious — what was Wilson like?

“He gets so much flak,” Bradley Chubb said of Russell Wilson. “It’s crazy, bro, because he do the absolute most that he can possibly do to make sure that he’s the best he possibly can be, you know what I mean? He doesn’t miss a step. When he has a fluke year like this, bro, you just have to chalk it up. Bro, you had a bad year. But it gets so glorified because of who he is, who he’s been, what he’s done.

“You have to look it as a nod to who you are as a person,” Chubb said of Wilson. ‘I’m on this pedestal, everybody wants to knock me down.’ That’s how it is with him. All the different allegations, he has to sit there and take it. It was dope to see how he just stayed the same person throughout it all. It was unfortunate that we just couldn’t reach the potential that we all thought we was going to be.”

It should be noted that Bradley Chubb and Russell Wilson are both North Carolina State alums, although they weren’t with the Wolfpack at the same time.

Maybe Wilson will be his old self this fall. The Broncos hired Sean Payton as the new head coach. And Payton is known for his offenses and his work with Drew Brees. And you could say Wilson has no where to go but up after last fall. He set career lows for completion percentage (60.5 percent) and touchdowns (16).

Meanwhile, Chubb also wants to prove he was worth the trade to the Dolphins. He wasn’t healthy during his first few games in Miami. The Dolphins hired Vic Fangio, an old Bronco coach, as their new defensive coordinator. So he’s expecting a bounce back.

This article first appeared on 5 GOATs and was syndicated with permission.

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