Expectations for playing time for Chubb, Wilson. And Jackson finally returns to practice

Bradley Chubb and Jeff Wilson Jr. both will debut for the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, although Mike McDaniel still isn’t ready to say how much.

The Dolphins added both just before the trade deadline Tuesday, after they already started to put together their game plan for the Chicago Bears. It means Chubb and Wilson both needed to learn Miami’s playbook, and the Dolphins needed to reshape their plan to figure out roles for their newcomers.

“They’re going to play,” McDaniel said. “To what exact degree, that depends on multiple variables.”

Chubb and Wilson both began practicing Wednesday in Miami Gardens, giving them three full sessions before the Dolphins (5-3) head to Illinois on Saturday.

The rapid integration, McDaniel said, means Miami will have to “manage expectations” about how much Chubb and Wilson will be able to contribute against the Bears.

“You just have to really manage expectations, understand, have empathy and put yourself in their shoes,” the coach said. “Our coaching staff has done a great job with that, understanding that we need to put him in position to play fast, and that’s a challenge, but not something completely foreign and something that I think our guys proved to be pretty comfortable with this week.”

Chubb was one of the biggest additions anyone made ahead of the deadline, with the Dolphins trading a first-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft to bring him to South Florida, and Miami locked him up to a five-year, $110 million extension Thursday. At some point, he will almost certainly be a starting linebacker, bolstering a pass rush which ranks in the bottom third of the NFL in sacks so far this season, and the Dolphins could keep his plan simple this weekend.

For a similar example: On Sunday, defensive end Robert Quinn made his debut for the Philadelphia Eagles after getting traded from Chicago and played 20 snaps in his debut. Chubb, at this point in both edge rushers’ careers, is a better player than Quinn, but a similar type of role would still make sense.

Wilson should have an even easier time easing in. The tailback isn’t going to be asked to be a franchise-altering player, just a solid rotational option behind fellow running back Raheem Mostert.

“They’re both ready and comfortable within the plan, and within their roles,” McDaniel said. “It will be somewhere between zero snaps and what they’ll normally get in a given week, just somewhere in that range, but it’ll be more than zero snaps.”

Austin Jackson returns to practice

For the first time in more than three weeks, Austin Jackson was back on the practice field Friday at Hard Rock Stadium’s Baptist Health Training Complex.

The offensive lineman hasn’t played since going down with an ankle injury in Week 1 and Miami finally activated him from injured reserve Tuesday, but McDaniel said then he was unlikely to play against the Bears at Soldier Field. He was limited in practice Friday and is officially listed as doubtful.

Jackson started at right tackle in the Dolphins’ season-opening win against the New England Patriots.

Still, it’s a positive development for Jackson, who had only practiced twice Miami designated him to return last month. The designation triggered a 21-day window and the Dolphins either had to activate him by the end of it or leave him on IR for the rest of the season.

The window ended this week.

Assuming Jackson doesn’t play in Chicago, offensive lineman Brandon Shell will likely make his third straight start at right tackle.

Dolphins’ River Cracraft out again

Wide receiver River Cracraft will miss his second straight game after sitting out practice Friday with an illness.

Cracraft missed Miami’s 31-27 win against the Detroit Lions on Sunday with a neck injury and didn’t practice all week due to an illness.

Tight end Tanner Conner, tackle Terron Armstead, linebacker Jaelan Phillips and safety Eric Rowe are all questionable after being limited in practice Friday. Conner is dealing with a knee injury, Armstead has toe and Achilles tendon issues, Phillips has a quad injury and Rowe is battling a hip issue.