NFL Trade Rumors
Through the first five years of his career, Nick Chubb had a legitimate claim to the title of best running back in the league. He never dipped below 5.0 yards per carry and had seasons of 996, 1,494, 1,067, 1,259, and 1,525 rushing yards, to go with 48 touchdowns in that span. His lowest PFF grade was an 81.8, and the Browns signed him to a contract extension in 2021 as a cornerstone of the offense.
That all changed in the second game of the 2023 season, where a routine red zone rush turned into a disaster. Chubb’s leg got stuck in the turf on a tackle and he tore his MCL and severely damaged his ACL. It took multiple surgeries to repair his knee and he missed the first six games of the 2024 season.
When he did return to the field, he wasn’t the same player. His 3.3 yards per carry and 57.5 PFF grade were both career lows by wide margins. Chubb will turn 30 towards the end of the 2025 season, which is already on the older side for a running back. It takes a special level of talent for a back to maintain a dominant force this late into his career, and while Chubb certainly fits the bill, his injury complicates things.
Still, we’ve seen players have bounce-back seasons an extra year removed from serious injuries like the one Chubb suffered. It’s possible he’ll be closer to his old self in 2025, though the fact that no team has signed him yet indicates there isn’t a ton of optimism for that league-wide. At this point, Chubb is likely looking at a committee role as an early-down chain-mover, someone to handle the smaller share of a workload focused on short-yardage situations and neutral game scripts.
The Browns selected two running backs in this draft, Quinshon Judkins in the second round and Dylan Sampson in the fourth. Both were consensus top-five backs in the class per the media big board, and with their reconstructed depth chart, the Browns have largely ruled out re-signing Chubb. If he is to play this season, it’ll probably have to be elsewhere. Here are some of his options:
Chubb, 29, was drafted by the Browns in the second round out of Georgia in 2018. He was entering the final year of a four-year, $7,383,094 contract when Cleveland signed him to a three-year, $36 million extension back in 2021.
The Browns restructured Chubb’s contract last April, lowering his cap hit in 2024 from $15.85 million to $6.275 million.
In 2024, Chubb appeared in eight games for the Browns and rushed for 291 yards on 93 carries (3.1 YPC) to go along with three touchdowns.
We had him included in our Top 100 Available 2025 Free Agents list.
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