Dolfan Radio | Year 3
By Brad Michaels • July 8, 2026
Hafley did not ask for more sacks. He asked for a complete player. That is a different sentence. Year 3 is when first-round edges either become the room or become the next option decision.
Bradley Chubb is in Buffalo. Jaelan Phillips was already gone. The edge room that is left is Chop Robinson, a veteran import mix, and a pile of draft picks who have not wrecked an NFL protection yet. That is the job. Not a committee. A bet.
Robinson was the 2024 first-rounder who flashed immediately: six sacks as a rookie, real get-off, enough pressure to finish fifth in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting. Year 2 went the other way. Four sacks. Fifteen games. A concussion that sat him for Week 18. Snap counts that said the last staff did not trust him on early downs. PFF had him as a 70.0 overall as a rookie and a 54.8 last year. That is not a scheme footnote. That is a player who got smaller when the league had tape.
He spent the spring adding weight. Finished 2025 at 258. Showed up at minicamp at 265 and said he still felt fast. That is the physical part. The football part is what Hafley keeps repeating.
“He needs to become a complete football player going into year three. We have high expectations for him. Hopefully he becomes an every-down player. The easy answer is his pass rush, his get-off, his ability to affect the quarterback. But I’m looking for a lot more from Chop. He’s going to line up in a 9-technique and play on tight ends and he has to set the edge.”
— Jeff Hafley, June 2026
Robinson’s own diagnosis was simpler. His eyes in the run game were wrecking everything else. Wide-9 only works if the edge actually is an edge. If the runner bounces and the linebackers are chasing width, Hafley’s front is a drawing.
6 sacks. Real burst. The tape that got him drafted showed up in games. The building treated him like the future.
4 sacks. Fewer pressures. A concussion to close it. The easy rush was still there. The every-down version was not.
Chubb is gone. The fifth-year option decision lands next spring. This season is the file they will open.
Hafley bases out of a 4-3 and lives in Wide-9. Sean Duggan has already said the nine-technique is how they take away space and how they get a clean angle to the quarterback. That is Chop’s natural alignment. Burst and bend from outside the tackle. The problem is the other half of the sentence: set the edge against tight ends and 320-pound tackles, then reduce inside to a 6 or a 5 when they slide him.
That is not a designated-pass-rush package. That is a starter. Miami does not have another proven one. Josh Uche and David Ojabo are rotations. Trey Moore and Max Llewellyn are rookies. Cameron Goode has lived on special teams. If Chop is a third-down specialist again, the front is a suggestion.
Camp reports in August and early September were kinder than last year’s tape. He looked heavier and still first. That is the hope. Hope is not a snap count. The first month is: does he play first-and-10 against a tight end without getting washed, and does he still win on third-and-7 when the tackle knows it is coming.
The scheme piece is the other half of this. Hafley can move him around. He cannot invent a second Chop if this one stays a rusher who leaves on first down. Year 3 is the audition. The building already told you the standard.
Where do you have him after four games — every-down starter, designated rusher, or the next name they have to draft again? Leave it in the comments.