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The Cleveland Browns are awaiting the return of one man: Nick Chubb. The star running back suffered a gruesome leg injury during the 2023 season, and his timetable is yet to be determined. Cleveland did well without Chubb last season, but they would much rather go into the season with him than without him.
With that in mind, Browns general manager Andrew Berry gave an update on Nick Chubb’s recovery from injury, per Kevin Patra. The GM stated that Cleveland is being conservative with their approach to Chubb’s recovery. However, the Browns GM was also pretty non-committal in terms of giving an actual update on Chubb’s status.
Browns GM Andrew Berry on Nick Chub: “I think that as we think about it, until we see him in the next couple months, I think the next — call it three — months will be pretty telling in terms of his potential readiness for early in the season. We are going to be conservative in terms of our approach in our assessment with building the roster because he is coming off of a major knee injury. But I do have to give him a lot of credit. He’s done a really, really nice job.”
“But I think we’ll have a better sense. Don’t hold me to it, but I think probably if you ask me that question around the draft, I may have maybe a little bit more of a specific answer.”
Chubb’s injury history, revisited
Chubb has always been one of the NFL’s most productive running backs over the course of his career. The Browns RB was coming off a 2022 campaign that saw him rush for over 1,500 yards. However, what some might not know was that Chubb suffered a pretty nasty leg injury during his college years. That injury threatened to derail his pro career before it even started.
In 2023, Chubb suffered a similarly gruesome injury. In Week 2 of the season, the Browns RB went down with a particularly nasty fracture in his lower leg. Chubb had to be stretchered out, and he was immediately ruled out for the rest of the season.
Due to the nature of the injury, there was a good chance that Nick Chubb wouldn’t be ready for the Browns’ season opener. Because of that, the team made some important moves with their running back room.
Browns’ RB moves in offseason
With Chubb’s early-season status in limbo, the Browns sought to improve their running back room. Jerome Ford emerged as a solid option for the team, but with Kareem Hunt out, the team badly needed new faces to fill the void left by Chubb.
The Browns elected to sign former Carolina Panthers running back D’onta Foreman in the offseason, as well as former Buffalo Bills RB Nyheim Hines. Both moves are meant as a band-aid solution, but some fans are worried that this could be a sign that Chubb could be losing his spot. Berry assured fans that that wasn’t the case.
“I wouldn’t read too much into it, to be honest with you,” Berry said. “D’Onta, he really, I think, has a skillset that’s probably pretty similar to how we used Kareem (Hunt) this past year. And then Nyheim was honestly really more for his return value and his pass-game skillset. So I wouldn’t read too much into that.”
It’s clear that the Browns still value Chubb as their primary running back. However, it will all still depend on how the star bounces back from his injury. Leg injuries are hard to come back from, especially from a position like the RB spot. Can Chubb regain the form he once had upon his return?
More must-reads:
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