The Miami Dolphins will have an unusual participant at their rookie minicamp this week — 31-year-old defensive end Aaron Lynch.
Lynch is a twice-retired veteran who has not appeared in an NFL game since the 2020 season, but is attempting an NFL comeback and earned a tryout at Miami’s rookie minicamp this week. He is the only veteran appearing at the team’s minicamp, which opened on May 10.
Aaron Lynch’s Winding Road
As Adam Stites of USA Today’s Dolphins Wire noted, Lynch entered the NFL as a fifth-round pick of the San Francisco 49ers in 2014 and made a strong impression there before bouncing around the league.
“After recording 15 sacks in four seasons, Lynch signed with the Chicago Bears as a free agent in 2018. He recorded five sacks in two seasons with the team and joined the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2020,” Stites wrote.
Lynch announced his retirement with the Jaguars during training camp prior to the start of the 2020 season, but came back two months later and appeared in eight games that season. Though he has been out of the league since then, he has taken efforts to come back and earned a tryout with the Cleveland Browns in March.
Stites noted that Lynch has gone through a bit of a transformation during his time away from the NFL, dropping weight and changing positions.
“Lynch, who was listed by the Jaguars as a 6’5, 285-pound defensive end in 2020, is a linebacker on the Dolphins’ rookie minicamp roster and listed at 6’5, 260 pounds,” Stites wrote.
Top Rookie Speaks Out at Minicamp
Most of the attention was on another edge rusher as minicamp opened on Friday. Chop Robinson, the team’s first-round draft pick, is expected to take on an important role with the Dolphins as edge rushers Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips return from season-ending injuries.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Robinson — the team’s first first-round pick in the last three years — said he’s trying to stay loose as he starts work at minicamp.
“I don’t put any pressure on myself,” Robinson said, via Hal Habib of the Palm Beach Post. “I just come here, keep my head down and be humble and just work. Be confident, humble and work — that’s my main thing. Don’t change who I am. Be the player I am, be the guy I am.”
Robinson said it was a surreal start to minicamp, his first real action in the NFL since being drafted last month.
“I think that’s why it really hasn’t hit me yet,” he said. “It will probably hit me when I get a break or something like that in the summer. Right now, just ready to work.”
Robinson added that he feels pressure to live up to the standard set by the team’s top edge rushers, adding that he’s been a fan of the pair for a long time.
“Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips — I’ve been watching those guys since I was in high school and I know what type of players they are since they were in college,” Robinson said. “I know they want greatness every day. So that’s what I’m chasing, too.”
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