SEPTEMBER 20: The Browns made the expected move of shifting Chubb to IR. The team also confirmed Wednesday that the four-time Pro Bowler will miss the rest of the season. Hunt is now officially back on Cleveland’s roster as a replacement.
SEPTEMBER 18: Nick Chubb‘s injury is expected to sideline him for the rest of the season. The standout Browns running back is believed to have suffered multiple ligament tears, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports.
It is not known which ligaments are torn, but the cart coming out to transport Chubb off the field in Pittsburgh — and ABC opting to not show a close-up replay of the injury — pointed to this outcome. More tests are on tap for Chubb, but he is unlikely to play again until 2024. Kevin Stefanski soon confirmed Chubb is expected to be out for the season.
Chubb’s contract runs through the 2024 season, but this will obviously deal a blow to his career and the Browns’ 2023 season. This is the same knee Chubb hurt while at Georgia. In October 2015, Chubb tore the MCL, PCL and LCL in his left knee. He came back to re-establish his standing with the Bulldogs and has since become one of the NFL’s best running backs. But the perennial Pro Bowler will be facing a road back much later in his career. Chubb will turn 28 in December.
The 2018 second-round pick had entered Week 2 as one of the league’s most durable backs. Chubb suffered a sprained MCL in 2020, costing him four games. He missed two contests the following year due to a calf strain. Otherwise, the top-tier back had avoided setbacks and continued to produce each year for the Browns.
Chubb did well to secure a three-year, $36.6MM extension in July 2021. That deal did not top the market, with Christian McCaffrey, Alvin Kamara and Ezekiel Elliott tied to higher-end contracts at that point. But Chubb collected $20MM guaranteed, signing a Browns re-up months after he became extension-eligible. While Chubb had long been taken care of — as the most recent RB to sign an eight-figure-per-year extension — he still participated in the Zoom meeting in which running backs discussed the declining state of their position. (That has since become the subject of an NFL grievance.) The injuries to Chubb and Saquon Barkley, who suffered a sprained ankle Sunday, will only intensify the attention given to the position.
While the likes of Michael Vick, Randall Cunningham and Russell Wilson sit above Chubb for career yards per carry, the modern Browns dynamo is in historically elite company among running backs in this department. Chubb came into Monday night with a 5.3-yard average, never finishing a season south of five yards per tote. For post-merger backs, only Jamaal Charles (5.4) and Bo Jackson reside above Chubb. He has ripped off four consecutive 1,000-yard seasons, hitting a career-high 1,525 last year.
The Browns made some changes behind Chubb this offseason, letting Kareem Hunt and D’Ernest Johnson walk in free agency. Hunt had been Chubb’s backup since his personal conduct suspension ended midway through the 2019 season, while Johnson played behind both the standout backs in Cleveland. Johnson is now a Jaguar, while Hunt remains unsigned. Hunt has spoken to the Colts, Saints and Vikings but has not signed anywhere. Considering his experience in Stefanski’s system, a signing would not exactly be off the radar.
But Cleveland used Jerome Ford as Chubb’s primary backup in Pittsburgh. Ford totaled 106 yards on 16 carries. The Browns also obtained Pierre Strong via trade from the Patriots in August. An Alabama signee who transferred to Cincinnati, Ford posted a 1,300-yard season to help the Bearcats become the first Group of Five team to advance to the College Football Playoff in 2021. Last season, the Browns gave the fifth-round rookie only 15 carries. Upon letting Hunt’s contract expire, the Browns eyed a bigger role for Ford this season.
Ford, who clocked a 4.46-second 40-yard dash at the 2022 Combine, should be expected to lead the way for a Browns team that has also lost veteran right tackle starter Jack Conklin. The former top-10 pick suffered ACL and MCL tears in Week 1. Attached to a $10.85MM base salary this season, Chubb is due an $11.78MM payout in 2024. This season, however, features the last of the guarantees in Chubb’s contract.
That’s terrible
This is turrible
Dam
You’ll never see a worse knee injury that that.
Napoleon McCallum came immediately to mind. Appears to be a great kid ( on /off field- check out family history & hometown). Not a Browns fan but I am rooting for this kid to have s full recovery. Luckily, reports indicate no nerve/artery damage
Prayers
Willis McGehee in college
This also happened to chubb in college, dislocated the same knee, tore ACL MCL LCL.
Hopefully he can come back.
This is worse that Willis’
This assumes the NFL allows you to see it. They seem to be going after anyone who posts the “good” angle to see it.
Ouch..
link to twitter.com
Cam Akers to the Browns
Why not just re-sign Hunt?
Because he looked slow last season, and there’s a reason no one has signed him. I expect Kelly to be added this week and they’ll look at a veteran if they can’t run it
Leroy?
I bet there’s more to it than that. He got into some trouble off the field I believe the last time he was there.
They could
He’s also missed an entire off season worth of conditioning and practicing with a team. Guys that skip that kind of stuff seem to get injured more often.
He’s a FA. Zeke missed most of the off season. Anyone out there as a FA is dealing with the same thing.
Rather deal with a conditioning issue than having to learn the playbook
Zeke signed August 16th so he had a couple weeks to get acclimated. He was also signed as a back up and has 12 carries so far this year in 2 games.
Browns are probably expecting more from Hunt. Just a wild guess.
Ford and Strong will do just fine behind that line. I’d be more concerned with the vacancy between the QB’s ears, he cost them that win
16 carries for 40 yards isn’t awe inspiring.
If Ford hadn’t pulled off an incredible effort to get that 69 yarder where he was initially stopped and had to change to the entire opposite side of the field steelers kept him in check the entire game except for 1 play.
But if 16 for 40 is what you’re looking for.
Haha. So in your book, running backs that gain big yards on plays shouldn’t be credited? At what yardage do you want to discredit the run? Does the same rule go for quarterbacks? If a quarterback gets a 50 plus yard completion, that should only count as 1 yard?
Man this sucks, speedy recovery Nick
This is why you don’t pay RB’s big money in free agency.
Barkely is out and Ekler missed this week’s game as well.
Well, you could get 4 decent RBs for what a good QB would cost and the injury risk is only marginally greater. You lose a Rodgers and the season is over but you lose a Chubb and you can still fill the gap to some extent and soldier on.
The flip side (and the more humane take) is that this is why running backs are asking for more money and would prefer not to be treated as cannon fodder.
Ice cold, Kenneth. Ice cold. Guy ripped up his knee. You don’t think the physical toll of that position warrants more pay? I do, and I get how the cap and system is set up. THAT is the problem though.
Not when they get hurt that bad that often. It’s really sad, but chubb isn’t going to return unless he comes back from 2 completely shredded knees 1 in college 1 last night. Browns should offer colts a trade for Taylor.
Stuff like this happens and I’m always amazed that stuff like what Kevin Ware had happen doesn’t happen in football. Also, the fact that he had that injury in 2015 and has gone on to be healthy and an all pro player is cause for celebration in football
As running back depth behind Ford, the Browns are said to be considering adding:
Lincoln, Chrysler, Dodge, Chevrolet, Buick & Cadillac !!
They’re all dealing with picket lines but at least Ford has come to the table, like Jerome.
Cadillac Williams says he is ready to go. If not better sign Matt Dodge for punting stamina.
That injury is among the worst I’ve seen. Chubb will be lucky to walk without a limp, let alone play pro football. Good on Chubb to have signed a guaranteed extension on time. Happily Chubb has more money than anyone needs to live a life and raise a family.
I’m curious if after an injury like this the Browns are obliged to pay out the full contract or whether they can cut Chubb while in rehab with one year (non-guaranteed) left on his contract. That would be a bad look, as Chubb is not fulfilling his contract because of injury.
My understanding is they COULD cut him at any point, but doing so doesn’t get them completely out of the contract. If a team cuts an injured player, they’re obligated to pay the salary he’s owed until he’s cleared to play again. So if they cut Chubb tomorrow, he’d be paid this year regardless. The system is super shady, though. That’s about the only protection injured players have.
That is why a good agent gets them an insurance policy to make them whole.
Does an injury guarantee cover the full contract or just the season? It seems to me that a good lawyer could force the Browns to pay out the full contract and not just the rest of the season. Teams are not supposed to be allowed to cut injured players.
Would love to hear a working sports lawyer’s opinion.
@alec if you want info like that try hitting up andrew brandt on twitter, he responds sometimes
That definitely would be a question better answered by a sports lawyer. In Chubb’s case, this is the last year of guaranteed money on his deal. Since next year isn’t guaranteed, I don’t know if a good lawyer could do anything with that or not? You get hurt playing football for your team, I personally feel like you should get every penny. I have no clue how all the contract language works though.
I will say I don’t even know if the Browns would be foolish enough to make that move, however. You go down that road and every player in the league notices. You’d rightfully be crushed in the media. There are just so many negatives that would outweigh letting the guy try to comeback on the last year of his deal and seeing if he can still play.
The Browns are awfully foolish. They gave up three first round draft picks and accepted the negative PR for trading for DeShaun Watson. The Browns also hired Kareem Hunt when he was banned around the league.
The Browns should have lowered their trade bid for DeShaun Watson as they were mainly bidding against themselves. No other team wanted the negative PR.
I don’t think the Browns care about PR. Bad PR bringing in Watson, bad PR re-signing Hunt. If they win the fan base might not care, but most of the rest of the world already looks poorly at them already.
Players who are hurt agree to be released with an injury settlement. That’s a payout which covers the weeks they would have been inactive. It also requires the player to finish rehab on their own. They’re also a free agent and can sign with a new team once they can pass a physical.
Nick Chubb will be passing any physicals, sadly. Alex Smith came back from his leg being snapped in two to play quarterback one-legged for half a season. Smith was a talented enough quarterback that he got away with it and even managed to win some games.
Still, Smith had zero mobility and was a limping target. The Redskins did not bring him back for the next season and no other team gave him a chance.
New report says injury isn’t as bad as they thought
That’s great news! Still I’ll believe it when I see Chubb back in practice. I saw the injury – a leg should never be bent like that.
6-8:months recovery and should be back to normal
Glad it’s not season ending. Seeing that injury made me wince so hard. Hope he recovers fully
Um, it is season ending.
Typo. I meant career ending
Napoleon Kaufman all over again.smh
We all wish that this happened to Deshaun Watson instead. Bummer.
Lost my Chubb seeing that injury
I mean their season was over in March, but this just confirms it more.
What’s ESPN’s definition of an injury that’s too serious to show a replay of? They seemed to have no problem showing a guy drop dead on the field last season, over and over again. Thankfully he was revived. But a running back blowing out a knee is too serious this season?