How Bradley Chubb helped NC State football's Payton Wilson rediscover his love of the game
Payton Wilson holds up a tiny Tupperware container in his left hand and raises his arm just slightly above his head, a simple movement that displays enormous progress for the NC State linebacker.
It's July, nearly nine months since his 2021 season came to a sudden end inside the Mississippi State visiting locker room. It's there team doctors told an inconsolable Wilson that the shoulder injury he sustained in the Week 2 loss would keep him out for the rest of the year and require a specific surgery — a Bristow procedure, which treats shoulder instability caused by shoulder blade issues — that's known to have a long and painful recovery.
"I was at ground zero. I couldn't even do the basics with my arm," Wilson said. "I had to learn how to do everything again, even things like using a fork or washing myself off, basically anything you can think of that you take for granted when using your arm."
It was a crushing blow for the All-ACC preseason pick and team captain who had eyes on an NFL jump if he was able to capitalize on his rising stock after finishing with 108 tackles, 3.5 sacks and two interceptions in 2020. It was supposed to be his year — until it wasn't.
Wilson found himself in a familiar yet uncomfortable place. As a senior at Orange High School in Hillsborough, he missed part of his final season after tearing the ACL in his right knee. He tore it again in June of 2018 which forced him to be redshirted in his first season at NC State. In 2020, he missed the Wolfpack's bowl game after dislocating both shoulders against Georgia Tech in the regular-season finale.
This time, though, something felt different. He was used to the physical pain and the hours of rehab that come with rebuilding a broken body. But his most recent injury had put a question in his head that had never been there before: "How much do I really love football?"
"I started looking at football not as something that I enjoyed, but as a business," Wilson said. "I was so focused on playing the system and seeing how far it could get me."
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What Payton Wilson learned from Bradley Chubb
It took well-timed advice from a former NC State linebacker to change that mindset. Bradley Chubb, the No. 5 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft now entering his fifth season with the Denver Broncos, paid a visit to the Raleigh campus in February and addressed the team.
Chubb's situation mirrored Wilson's. He had missed most of the 2021 season with an ankle injury that had deflated his momentum after making the Pro Bowl in 2020. He spoke about his own mental struggles of overcoming injuries and how, at times, it made him hate football.
Chubb may have shared his message with the room, but Wilson felt like Chubb was speaking directly to him.
"He said that he had to find love outside of the game to finally fall back in love with the game," Wilson said. "That was something that I really took to heart and really tried to work on, you know, something that I did."
That meant one thing for Wilson — going home.
He began making weekly trips back to Hillsborough — about a half-hour northwest of Raleigh — to spend time with his family, something he said he neglected once his college football career took off in 2019.
"Payton getting injured made him realize that there was more to life than just football," said his father, Chad Wilson. "He came home and reset. I think he needed to be reminded what life was like before he left for college."
Wilson spent his time in Hillsborough doing the things he loved: working out at the gym with his father, taking trips to nearby fishing holes and spending time in the kitchen cooking with his mother. Family was the reason the former four-star recruit chose NC State over 23 other programs and it was family that helped Wilson find joy in football.
"That was really the thing that got me back on track to working hard," Wilson said. "It reminded me why I play this sport and remember all the things they've done for me to have this opportunity. I do a lot of this to pay them back and it was important for me to go home and remember that."
The time with his family pushed Wilson to work even harder in rehab, and in March, he was cleared to return to full activity with the team. He made some other big life decisions over the summer, moving out of his apartment with quarterback Devin Leary and moving in with his girlfriend.
"It was time for that," Wilson said, laughing. "Don't worry, we're still best friends for life."
What a healthy Payton Wilson means for NC State
A healthy Wilson makes an already formidable linebacking core into one of the best units in the country.
The Wolfpack return All-ACC linebacker Drake Thomas and defensive player of the year candidate Isaiah Moore, who missed the second half of the season with a knee injury as well as junior Jaylon Scott, sophomore Devon Betty and redshirt freshmen Jayland Parker, Caden Forham and Jordan Poole.
NC State enters the 2022 season as a trendy pick to win the ACC's Atlantic Division after defeating Clemson, Florida State and North Carolina last season for the first time in 20 years. The Wolfpack went 9-3 in 2021 and return the majority of their starters on both sides of the ball.
"My motivation level is at an all-time high," Wilson said. "I have a lot to prove, not just to college football, but to myself. I wasn't able to show who I really was last year and I'm really excited to show the player I truly am this season."
David Thompson is an award-winning reporter for the USA Today Network covering NC State and Duke athletics. He can be reached at dthompson1@gannett.com, at 828-231-1747, or on Twitter at @daveth89.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: NC State football: How Bradley Chubb helped Wolfpack's Payton Wilson
