PFF Considers Browns RB Nick Chubb Top 5 In NFL Following Knee Injury

Cleveland's top tailback continues to rehab but isn't sure when he'll be ready to return to the field in 2024.

Browns running back Nick Chubb is all smiles on the sideline during minicamp, Tuesday, June 11, 2024, in Berea. / Jeff Lange / USA TODAY NETWORK

Browns general manager Andrew Berry was right back in January when he said nobody wanted to see Nick Chubb's tenure in Cleveland end with him being carted off the field last season.

Chubb suffered a gruesome knee injury during a Week 2, Monday Night Football showdown with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The months sense have been spent wondering whether or not the four-time Pro Bowler had played his last snap for the franchise.

Entering the final year of his contract, the Browns could have cut ties with Chubb and saved over $11 million in cap space this season. The speculation was promptly put to bed when Berry initiated a contract restructure that Chubb accepted. As he told the media several weeks back during OTAs, he didn't want to be anywhere else.

Nick Chubb knows his contract situation could have gone much differently with #Browns this offseason: https://t.co/dmXhS4PBBL

— 𝚂𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚛 𝙶𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚗 (@Spencito_) June 6, 2024

With his contract situation resolved for 2024, attention now turns toward whether or not Chubb can return to the player he was before the injury. That remains one of the biggest unknowns for Cleveland heading into the season.

Football analytics website Pro Football Focus doesn't seem too concerned. In their summer ranking of the top backs for all 32 teams, Chubb was listed No. 4 overall. As Thomas Valentine wrote:

Nick Chubb has long been considered one of the best running backs in the league, and rightly so. He had rushed for 1,000 yards in four consecutive seasons prior to 2023, amassing 40 rushing touchdowns in that time, and was the fulcrum of the Browns’ offense up until his devastating season-ending injury last year.

If Chubb returns as anything that closely resembles his former self, then he’ll remain one of the elite
running backs in the NFL. But that’s a tough ask, considering the severity of his injury.

in fairness to Chubb he has come back from a serious knee injury before, during his sophomore season at Georgia in 2015. The difference being, of course, that he's nearly 10 years older now, entering his age 28 season. And that he's had more wear and tear on his body.

Still Chubb is on a mission to prove the doubters wrong.

"I see everything," he said earlier this month. "It’s not the first time someone has counted me out. So I’ve been here before and I’m not really paying much attention to it. But I do see it, and I’m just focusing on getting better."

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