The Buffalo Bills signed Bradley Chubb to a three-year deal, betting that a familiar AFC East pass rusher can help fix a problem that has followed them for seasons. Chubb, who has been in the AFC East since the 2022 season, is the latest high-upside edge move for a team that has kept searching for a closer on defense.
That search now runs through a player who can change a game when he is on the field. Chubb has been one of the better pass rushers in the league when healthy, and his recent production shows why the Bills were willing to make the move: he combined his 2023 and 2025 seasons for 19.5 sacks and 8 forced fumbles.
The fit is not hard to see. Under Jim Leonhard, the Bills can put Chubb in positions that let him attack the quarterback instead of asking him to carry a heavy all-around load on every snap. That kind of role matters for a rusher whose value comes from bursts off the edge, pressure on obvious passing downs, and the kind of disruption that can flip a late drive.
But the investment also comes with the same warning label that has shadowed Chubb throughout his career. He tore his ACL in 2019 and played in just four games that season. He tore the same ACL late in the 2023 season, missed the rest of that year and all of 2024, and now arrives in Buffalo with the question that has followed him for years: how much of that production can the Bills actually get on the field?
That is what makes this move different from the Bills' recent tries at the spot. They signed Von Miller to a six-year deal in 2022 after he won a Super Bowl with the Los Angeles Rams, then released him in the 2025 offseason after three seasons in Buffalo. They turned next to Joey Bosa on a one-year deal in that same offseason, and he led the league with 5 forced fumbles before his pass rush faded late in the regular season and in the playoffs and his run support fell short. Bosa was one-and-done in Buffalo.
So the Bills have gone from Miller to Bosa to Chubb, chasing the same answer with a different name. Chubb gives them the most balanced profile of the three when healthy, but the next chapter is still about availability. The Bills signed him to play their first season together, and everything else depends on whether his body finally holds up long enough to finish what his talent says he can start.
