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Nick Chubb's Cleveland Browns career is over as running back signs with Houston Texans
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- Nick Chubb's Cleveland Browns career is over as running back signs with Houston Texans
Nick Chubb had become arguably the Cleveland Browns' most beloved player since Bernie Kosar since arriving in 2018. Much like the famed quarterback of the 1980s and early 1990s, the running back's time in the NFL will end elsewhere.
Chubb has officially signed a one-year deal worth $2.5 million and can reach $5 million with the Houston Texans , the team announced. That came a day after multiple reports had emerged June 8 that the running back was going to be visiting Houston, with a deal essentially being completed, pending a positive physical.
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The irony of Chubb ending up with Houston is that the No. 35 overall pick in the second round of the 2018 NFL Draft that Cleveland used to pick him came from the Texans. The Browns acquired the pick in exchange for Houston taking on the Brock Osweiler contract.
Houston will pair Chubb with another AFC North expatriate, former Cincinnati Bengals running back Joe Mixon , who signed with the Texans before the 2024 season.
"We want to take this opportunity to thank Nick Chubb for all he's done for the Cleveland Browns ," Browns owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam said in a statement. "For the last seven years, Nick gave everything he had to our fans, this organization and this city. He always represented our team as the consummate professional and in a manner that showed his passion and love for the game of football.
"Nick has always been about hard work and letting his play on the field do the talking for him," the Haslams' statement continued. "We are so grateful for the many moments he created on the field that we will never forget. One moment that stands out most is him stepping out of bounds at the 3-yard line instead of scoring after a 59-yard run to ensure a victory in a game against the Texans in 2020. Nick always puts winning above any personal accolade, and that is what makes him so special. Thank you for being a Brown, Nick, and we look forward to the day we celebrate your career as a member of our Ring of Honor."
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Chubb will depart No. 3 on the Browns' all-time rushing list with 6,843 yards in 85 career games. The only two in front of him are face-of-the-franchise Pro Football Hall of Famers Jim Brown and Leroy Kelly.
Browns RB Nick Chubb is set for NFL free agency. Mandatory Credit: Scott Galvin-Imagn Images
It was Brown who announced the Browns' selection of Chubb with the No. 35 pick out of the University of Georgia. Much like in college, where he departed second only to Herschel Walker in UGA rushing yards, Chubb found himself following in the footsteps of a certifiable legend.
"Yeah, it's definitely special, definitely an honor to come behind Herschel Walker at Georgia and now Jim Brown," Chubb said on June 2, 2023, just weeks after Brown died. "That's two greats who I've been around and I've been able to meet and just talk to them and learn a lot from them. So it's definitely a blessing. And, yeah, it's also honor to come behind them. I got to keep the legacy going."
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Chubb did so with a quiet ferocity, typically eschewing the spotlight by not doing a lengthy list of television endorsements. Instead, he let his punishing running style and historic career numbers do the talking for him, until injuries slowed him down his final two seasons in Cleveland.
The four-time Pro Bowler wasn't just top three in the Browns' record books in career rushing yards. His 30 100-yard rushing games are second most all-time, and his 51 career rushing touchdowns are third most.
Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb (24) runs for a touchdown against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Jan. 3, 2021, in Cleveland, Ohio.
Chubb's 5.11 yards-per-carry average is fourth highest all-time in NFL history, behind Jamal Charles (5.38), Brown (5.22) and Mercury Morris (5.19). His rushing total is the fourth highest in the NFL since 2018, behind Derrick Henry (10,189), Saquon Barkley (7,216) and Josh Jacobs (6,874).
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The Cedartown, Ga., native contextualized what he had accomplished when he spoke shortly after Brown's passing of the legendary running back's impact on him.
"I feel like the biggest thing that he taught me was something he never even said," Chubb said. "Just probably just me watching his film and playing here in Cleveland behind him. Just knowing that the greatest running back played here, and that's enough inspiration and motivation for me. Just to know, I'm coming behind Jim Brown, so people around here expect a lot from a running back."
It was that approach that endeared Chubb to the fan base. The player proclaimed his love to the city of Cleveland in an essay in "The Players Tribune" before his return in 2024 from a devastating knee injury, writing, "We always hear that NFL isn't the same as college, but I can't tell the difference here in Cleveland. It's the same love that I had in my college town in UGA."
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That fan base, in turn, saved some of its loudest cheers for Chubb, even when injury kept him from playing. On Dec. 28, 2023, before the Browns' playoff-clinching win over the New York Jets and just over a month after a second knee surgery, he stood on a platform wearing a Batman mask, smashing a guitar into a pyrotechnic device to draw deafening cheers from the sold-out crowd.
Browns running back Nick Chubb breaks guitar painted in New York Jets colors and logos before a game at Cleveland Browns Stadium, Dec. 28, 2023, in Cleveland.
As Chubb headed into free agency, he acknowledged the fans would be something he never forgot, even if he had to go elsewhere.
"Man, just for me, the city of Cleveland means lot," Chubb said in a conversation with the Beacon Journal on Feb. 7. "To me, it's a special place. The people in Cleveland make it great, the fans and just the people around the city. But always a special place to me in my heart. I loved it here and it will always be home, no matter what."
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The separation between Chubb, 29, and the Browns had been evident for some time. The writing was on the wall, especially, during the 2025 NFL Draft, when Cleveland selected running backs Quinshon Judkins and Dylan Sampson with picks No. 36 (second round) and 126 (fourth round).
Those two rookies join a running back room that includes Jerome Ford and Pierre Strong Jr. , fourth-year players in the final year of their rookie deals. Ford took a pay cut from from a non-guaranteed $3.486 million to a fully guaranteed $1.75 million recently, eliminating the proven production escalator that had kicked in because he reached certain performance benchmarks.
Those two moves didn't officially slam the door on a return for Chubb. However, they certainly indicated a willingness by the Browns to move on from their beloved running back.
"I'd say not necessarily, but the complexion of our running back room has changed this weekend," general manager Andrew Berry said April 26 of the draft's impact on Chubb. "And so, as we work through the undrafted free agency process, maybe take a breath on Sunday, we'll reassess kind of where the roster is and what opportunities are available to us on the veteran market, and then we'll operate from there."
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Chubb had never reached the open free-agent market before this year. He signed a three-year, $36.6 million extension in 2021 that kept him through the most recent season.
Injuries hampered the final two seasons of that deal. The biggest of those came in a Week 2 loss at the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sept. 18, 2023, when Chubb sustained a season-ending knee injury when safety Minkah Fitzpatrick rolled into his leg.
Chubb sustained tears to his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), medial collateral ligament (MCL), the medial capsule and meniscus, all of which except the ACL he had previously torn in a 2015 injury while at Georgia. The first surgery, on Sept. 29, repaired the MCL, medial capsule and meniscus; the second, on Nov. 14, 2023, repaired the ACL.
"I was down mentally for a while," Chubb said after a Browns OTA on June 5, 2024 . "Just when you get hurt, I mean, it's one thing. But when you get hurt again and you already know what you've got to go through and the entire process — surgery, rehab — it's a nonstop battle every day."
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Berry vowed after the 2023 season the injury in Pittsburgh would not be "the last time he carries the ball for the Cleveland Browns ." The Browns and Chubb restructured the final year of the deal, lowering the base salary while raising the amount of incentives.
Chubb missed the first six games of the 2024 season before returning Oct. 20 against the Cincinnati Bengals. He rushed for 332 yards and three touchdowns on 102 carries over the course of eight games.
Two of those touchdowns and 59 of those yards came in a snow-covered win over the Steelers on "Thursday Night Football" on Nov. 21. Three weeks later, in the Browns' next home game against the Kansas City Chiefs , he sustained a broken foot in the third quarter that ended his season.
Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb (24) scores a touchdown late in the fourth quarter against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Cleveland.
Much like after the injury the previous year in Pittsburgh, the foot injury brought out a visceral emotional reaction from Chubb's teammates. Ford, who was once again called upon to serve as his replacement, summed up the reason for that response.
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"Just the way he comes to work every day," Ford said on Dec. 15. "He comes, he in early, out late. The way he work, how much work he put in and you being able to see it on the field, bursting in practice. It's a bunch of little things that he do that we all get to see day in and day out, and just to see it coming to fruition on game day, everything that he do, it is like a proud moment for us. Like, dang, he do it every day in practice and now we get to see it in the game."
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Nick Chubb signs contract with Texans, ending legendary Browns career
