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'I'd like to get it done': Browns running back Nick Chubb weighs in on free agency
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- 'I'd like to get it done': Browns running back Nick Chubb weighs in on free agency
If it was entirely up to running back Nick Chubb , there's only one place where his free-agency would take him. That's right back with the Cleveland Browns .
"Of course," Chubb told the Beacon Journal Friday on a Teams call from New Orleans , where he was promoting Bounty paper towels with teammate David Njoku . "This is where I was drafted. This is where I've played the last seven years."
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Chubb said he hasn't yet spoken with the Browns about a new contract. His most recent three-year deal expired at the end of Cleveland's 3-14 season.
As for a timetable for a potential deal, if there's one to get done, that's something the four-time Pro Bowl doesn't know at all. Well, he also knows that, but, again, it's not up to him.
"I'm not sure how it'll work," Chubb said. "This is the first time I've been a free agent. But I'd like to get it done sooner than later."
Chubb, who turned 29 last Dec. 27, has dealt with season-ending injuries each of the last two seasons. There was a knee injury in 2023 that required two surgeries and kept him sidelined until Week 7 of last season, then a broken foot last December, although that didn't require surgery.
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Despite the former, the Browns reworked the final year of Chubb's contract last April, keeping with general manager Andrew Berry's goal that the injury in Pittsburgh not be "the last time he carries the ball for the Cleveland Browns ." However, Berry was much less definitive of the running back's future in Cleveland when he spoke at his postseason news conference on Jan. 6.
"It's always a challenging situation when one of your cornerstone players, their contract is up," Berry said then. "That's probably maybe a little bit the different situation this year, 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 in the next several weeks."
Before Chubb's return last October against the Cincinnati Bengals , he wrote an essay in The Players' Tribute about his journey from the knee injury to being able to play again. While he touched a lot on his childhood growing up, especially his mother and grandmother, he also spoke of his love for the city of Cleveland.
In the piece, Chubb compared the support he received in Cleveland to what he received while starring at the University of Georgia. Those emotions haven't changed even with the possibility of wearing a different uniform.
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"Man, just for me, the city of Cleveland means lot," Chubb said. "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."
As for the Browns, the next several weeks going into the NFL combine at the end of this month and then of the start of the new league year on March 12 are filled with a lot of major questions. There's Myles Garrett 's very public trade request on top of the continued question about finding a quarterback solution.
The free-agency status of Chubb is just another thing for the Browns to have to juggle in an incredibly critical offseason. The 2018 second-round pick is the franchise's No. 3 all-time rusher behind Hall of Famers Jim Brown and Leroy Kelly with 6,843 yards.
"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," Berry said on Jan. 6. "… 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."
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The latest injury, suffered in Week 15 last season against the Kansas City Chiefs , only adds to the questions. The broken foot cut Chubb's comeback short with 3½ games left in the season, games that could've provided a little more clarity as to how he was rounding back into form.
Despite not coming back until the seventh game of the season, and only playing 7½ games, he still finished the season two shy of the team lead in rushing attempts with 102. He was second on the team in rushing with 332 yards, while tying Jerome Ford with three touchdown runs.
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 weighs in on free agency, possible return to Browns
