Arecent video of Nick Chubb training for his return has fueled speculation that the Cleveland Browns running back could be back sooner rather than later.
Chubb suffered a catastrophic knee injury in Week 2 against the Pittsburgh Steelers last season. He had both his ACL and MCL repaired during two separate surgeries. The latest of those came in November.
He’s expected back at some point next season, but an exact timeline for a return is uncertain. However, video of Chubb training in his home state of Georgia has inspired hope that he could be back on the field when the Browns kick off the season against the Dallas Cowboys on September 8.
The video was published by the Cleveland.Source Instagram account. It shows Chubb running on the upper level of a gym—a tremendous step in the right direction. The caption provided a little more context, although it may not be the most dependable information.
“I’ve got some pretty good insight. I go to Berry College which is in Rome, Georgia close to where Nick Chubb lives,” the caption read, citing a source. “He’s been coming in and out the last week swimming and lifting and running now. This was him this morning running. I also asked him how the recovery was going [and] he said ‘he wants to be back by Week 1.'”
YouTube personality Quincy Carrier discussed the clip on the “Sports 4 CLE” podcast, providing a more realistic viewpoint.
“It’s exciting to see him sprint, but we know in reality with ACL tears, it’s more about the lateral movement than it is about the straight-line stuff,” Carrier said.
Browns Tempering Expectations for Nick Chubb
The Browns have been very happy with Chubb’s progress in his rehab. However, the team is still tempering expectations when it comes to his return.
“Nick’s feeling pretty good,” Berry said during an interview on 92.3 The Fan’s Ken Carman Show with Anthony Lima on May 2. “He’s doing a really nice job in his rehab. Still got a long way to go but he’s progressing nicely at this point in time.”
The Browns have prepared for Chubb to miss some time. Jerome Ford and Pierre Strong Jr. will return. Cleveland also signed veteran D’Onta Foreman and Nyheim Hines.
“Depth is important at every position, we were really pleased with that room last year. I thought Jerome and Pierre, in particular, did an incredible job filling in last year,” Berry said on April 18. “They got obviously a lot of time and a lot of reps last year and feel very good about their skill sets. We’ve added a couple of guys to that room with differing skill sets that can complement those guys, but we think we’re in a pretty strong spot.”
Nick Chubb Agreed to Restructured Contract With Browns
Chubb and the Browns agreed to a restructured contract this offseason. The move chopped down Chubb’s base salary of around $12 million and converted much of that into incentives. It lowered Chubb’s cap hit to a manageable $6.275 million.
“Yeah, I won’t comment in detail on the contract, other than to say that I think that whenever you go through a situation like that, I think people think it’s easy for a club, an agent, to be adversarial,” Berry said. “And, you know, with Nick’s situation, I really applaud Nick and then his reps, Todd France and A.J. Stevens, for being really collaborative partners and finding a solution that worked for everybody.
“You know, I think everybody in this room is happy that Nick is back as a Cleveland Brown and we’re very optimistic that he’s going to crush the rehab.”
The Browns are playing it safe with Chubb. However, he will want to return as soon as possible to start chipping away at those incentives.
