Andrew Berry says that while team appreciates Chubb, the upcoming contract situation is challenging.
The Cleveland Browns have learned a hard lesson over the past two seasons: life is better with Nick Chubb in the backfield.
Chubb, who was on a pace to break every franchise record for running backs through his first five seasons, has now seen his career derailed by injuries two years in a row.
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First, a major knee injury in Week 2 of the 2023 season sidelined Chubb for the remainder of the year after just 28 carries. He was then inactive for the first six weeks of the 2024 season as he continued his rehabilitation, finally making his return in Week 7 against the Cincinnati Bengals.
The feel-good story only lasted eight games, however, as Chubb suffered a broken foot in Week 15 against the Kansas City Chiefs and ended the season on the injured reserve list.
All told, a running back who rushed for more than 6,300 yards and 48 touchdowns in his first five seasons was limited to just 502 rushing yards and three touchdowns in 10 total games between 2023 and 2024.
The Browns reworked the final year of Chubb’s contract in the wake of the 2023 injury, a move that now leaves him entering the offseason as an unrestricted free agent.
Where it once seemed that Chubb would continue to run through the NFL and into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a lifelong Brown, the situation is now not so clear, which general manager Andrew Berry touched on during his end-of-season media appearance on Monday (quote via a team-provided transcript):
“I want to start by saying I think everybody in this room knows how much respect that we have for Nick and how much appreciation we have for not just like his exploits on the field, but who he is in the locker room and who he is as a person. It’s always a challenging situation when one of your cornerstone players, their contract is up. That’s probably maybe a little bit the different situation this year relative to relative to last, where there is maybe perhaps a little bit less control on the club side with it.
“Those are all decisions that we do have to work through the next several weeks. We love Nick. He’s going to be a Ring of Honor player for us, and we know that. In terms of the short term, that’s something that quite honestly, we just have to work through over the next several weeks.”
That is not exactly the message the Browns fans – or Chubb, for that matter – want to hear right now. But Berry is not going to tip his hand about any player that he is heading into free agency, no matter how beloved they are to the franchise and its fans.
For his part, Chubb has said he would like to finish his career in Cleveland, so there should be an opportunity for the two sides to work something out if that is what they want to do.
The bigger, and more disappointing question, is how much Chubb has left after the injuries. The numbers he put up in limited playing time this past season were the lowest of his career, but some of that can be attributed to his not being 100 percent from the knee injury. Another year removed from that will help, but there is also the question of how much the foot injury sets him back and everything adds up to a player who may be on the downside.
The first order of business is a new contract, then time will tell if Chubb can continue his march up the franchise’s leaderboard for running backs.