Browns bolster backfield with D’onta Foreman
One piece of the offseason puzzle the Browns hadn’t found over the initial week of free agency was a running back. That changed on Wednesday.
A league source confirmed for the Beacon Journal the Browns have reached a deal with veteran running back D’onta Foreman. Bleacher Report’s Jordan Schultz was the first to report.
Foreman, who will turn 28 on April 24, spent last season with the Chicago Bears, his fourth NFL team since being drafted by the Houston Texans in the third round of the 2017 draft. The University of Texas product has played in 52 career regular-season and two playoff games with the Texans (2017-18), the Tennessee Titans (2020-21), the Carolina Panthers (2022) and the Bears (2023).
During his two seasons with the Texans, Foreman was a teammate of quarterback Deshaun Watson, who had been selected in the first round of that same 2017 draft by Houston.
Foreman comes to Cleveland as a veteran presence at running back to help fill the void while Nick Chubb continues to recover from
two major surgeries to repair the knee he injured in a Week 2 loss at the Pittsburgh Steelers. While the Browns have been pleased with Chubb’s recovery, both general manager Andrew
Berry and coach Kevin Stefanski haven’t given a timetable for his return to football activities.
The Browns went with a three-man rotation at running back after Chubb’s
absence. That rotation featured 2022 sixth-round pick Jerome Ford, Pierre Strong Jr., a second-year pro acquired before the season from the New England Patriots, and veteran
Kareem Hunt, who was only re-signed by the team two days after Chubb’s injury.
Ranked second in the league in rushing at 202 yards per game two games into the season, the Browns finished the season ranked 12th with a 118.6 yards-pergame average. Ford finished as the team’s leading rusher with 813 yards and four touchdowns on 204 carries.
The 6-foot, 235-pound Foreman is in much the same mold as Hunt, and not just with the veteran presence he provides. He also provides some brute power running to the position group, regardless of when Chubb does return to action.
For his career, Foreman has rushed for 2,326 yards and 14 touchdowns on 552 carries. He’s also caught 34 passes for 342 yards and three touchdowns.
Foreman has only played in double-digit games in a season twice — in 10 games as a rookie with Houston and in all 17 with Carolina. That one season with the Panthers, though, was his best, as he ran for 914 yards and five touchdowns on 203 carries.
Last season, Foreman split time with Khalil Herbert in the Chicago backfield, gaining 425 yards and four touchdowns on 109 carries in nine games. Those were two of three Bears players to have 100-plus rushing attempts, along with quarterback Justin Fields.