Dolphins have made only two dozen mid-or late-season trades ever. Where Chubb, Wilson rank

South Florida teams have benefited from trade-deadline acquisitions through the years, from the Heat snagging Tim Hardaway, Goran Dragic and Jae Crowder, to the Marlins acquiring Darren Daulton, Ugueth Urbina and Craig Counsell as catalysts during championship seasons, to the Panthers landing likely future Hall of Famer Jaromir Jagr at the 2015 trade deadline.

But the NFL is a different animal, with trade-deadline deals far less frequent and genuinely impactful pickups even more unusual. And the Dolphins have rarely experienced that type of mid-season talent injection.

In their 56 seasons before this one, the Dolphins had made only 22 in-season trades after September, and only a couple of those acquisitions made any real difference.

That’s why the gravity of recent trades for running back Jeff Wilson Jr. and to a lesser extent, linebacker Bradley Chubb, is uncommon and unique, certainly for this franchise.

Wilson has rushed 26 times for 170 yards, a 6.5 average, and a touchdown in his first two games as a Dolphin, while catching five passes for 45 yards and another touchdown.

Chubb has half a sack in two games, and the importance of the 2020 Pro Bowler will be amplified with the loss of defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah to a season-ending triceps injury.

If Wilson finishes his first Dolphins season anything like he has started it — and if Chubb can replicate what he did in Denver, where he had 25 sacks in 49 games — both would be considered among the best, perhaps the best, trade deadline pickups in team history.

“I really like those guys a lot,” Dolphins defensive lineman Christian Wilkins said Sunday. Chubb “is going to be able to help us a lot, especially down the stretch and as he learns the defense and gets more comfortable. He has come right in and been a good fit right away to the scheme.

“And Jeff, it’s fun to watch him rush. I don’t know who [angers] him before every game, but damn!”

Fullback Alec Ingold said Wilson “runs like his feet are on fire. He’s quick, he’s explosive, high energy, decisive.”

Factoring in his work in San Francisco, Wilson’s 5.4 rushing average for the season ranks sixth among all running backs with at least 100 attempts.

His physicality and energy have buoyed teammates.

“I think he electrifies the defense, too,” coach Mike McDaniel said, “because when you’re on the sidelines and you see someone punishing defenders and straining and doing everything they can for each and every yard, it makes every [player] better.”

Considering the production and what little was needed to acquire him (a 2023 fifth-round pick), the Wilson deal already has rocketed near the top of the Dolphins’ best trade deadline deals ever.

Before the Chubb pickup — he was acquired with a 2025 fifth-round pick for a 2023 first-rounder, a 2024 fourth-rounder and running back Chase Edmonds — the Dolphins’ biggest trade ever around the deadline was dealing future first-and second-round picks in 1985 to Tampa for linebacker Hugh Green, who made an immediate impact with five sacks in 11 games.

Green started the next season on a roll, with four sacks in three games before sustaining a season-ending knee injury.

He produced 13 more sacks in five more seasons here, but his overall time in Miami was viewed as somewhat disappointing, because he and others could never deliver the Dolphins an elite defense to match the fireworks that Dan Marino, Mark Clayton and Mark Duper were giving them on offense.

Among the Dolphins’ other in-season deals around the deadline, the only other one that provided significant immediate help was the 1996 deal that sent guard Billy Milner to St. Louis for tight end Troy Drayton, who had 26 catches for 320 yards that season and caught 127 passes in four years in Miami.

Former NFL Pro Bowler Bryant McKinnie, acquired in a 2013 deal with Baltimore, didn’t play well after his Oct. 22 pickup and never played another NFL snap after that season.

The Dolphins dealt accomplished receiver Chris Chambers to San Diego for a second-round pick in October of 2007, but that draft choice was used on quarterback Chad Henne, who became merely a stopgap starter, not a longterm answer.

The 2005 October quarterback swap of A.J. Feeley and a sixth rounder for Cleo Lemon netted little in return; Lemon went 1-7 in eight Dolphins starts, with a 72.2 passer rating.

Before Wilson and Chubb, most of the Dolphins’ predeadline trades were largely forgettable, some some for salary cap reasons (a 2019 trade with the Rams for Aqib Talib, who never played a down here) and others consummated simply to jettison running backs who were deemed expendable (Karim Abdul-Jabbar, Jesse Chatman, Jay Ajayi, Kenyan Drake).

Before the Wilson and Chubb pickups, the Dolphins’ two most recent predeadline deals had virtually no impact: a 2020 trade of a sixth-rounder to Kansas City for running back DeAndre Washington, who averaged just 3.1 yards on 28 Dolphins carries; and a deal that sent receiver Isaiah Ford to New England for a seventh-rounder.

That’s why adding players the caliber of Wilson and Chubb, this time of the year, is so atypical for this franchise.

“Last week was a whirlwind trying to figure out my living situation, kind of having the emotions of getting traded, all that type of stuff and now I’m comfortable, I’m good,” said Chubb, who had five sacks for Denver this season before the trade. “My guys help me out every time I need them. I’m a lot more comfortable and feeling like myself. The numbers are going to come. I’m just excited to be here.”

Since acquiring Chubb, the Dolphins — when rushing only four — have pressured the opposing quarterback 44 percent of dropbacks, which is best in the league, per ESPN. That’s in part a reflection of Chubb’s early impact.

Chubb is signed through 2027 after the Dolphins give him a five-year, $110 million extension two days after the trade.

Wilson, on a one-year, $1.1 million deal, will be a free agent after this season.