Chubb gets extension
Browns and Pro Bowl running back Nick Chubb agree to 3-year, $36.6 million contract extension
Nick Chubb epitomizes the tough, smart, accountable identity coach Kevin Stefanski and general manager Andrew Berry want to define the Browns, so the franchise rewarded the two-time Pro Bowl running back accordingly.
The former Cedartown High School standout Chubb and the Browns agreed Saturday to a three-year, $36.6 million contract extension, which includes $20 million guaranteed, a person familiar with the deal confirmed for the Beacon Journal. USA Today’s Mike Jones first reported an agreement had been reached.
Before the fourth full-squad practice of training camp Saturday afternoon, Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam praised Chubb when asked about the 2018 second-round draft pick (35th overall) from the University of Georgia being on the verge of entering the final season of his rookie contract.
“Great player, even better person. I can’t say any more than that. There are very few people out there like Nick Chubb,” Jimmy Haslam said.
Added Dee Haslam, “Great team player.” Asked whether Chubb’s intangibles — he’s known for having no off-field baggage and an incredible work ethic — would play into the organization’s desire to keep Chubb, Jimmy Haslam said, “Absolutely. I think that would go not just for Nick, but a bunch of other players like that. We re-signed [All-Pro defensive end] Myles [Garrett last summer] because he’s a great player, but he’s also a really great person. Smart, tough accountable — that’s what we’re looking for. The rest is in Andrew’s court.”
Well, Berry checked off a major item on his to-do list by locking up Chubb through the 2024 season.
In September, running back Kareem Hunt signed a two-year, $13.25 million extension, so he is under contract with the Browns through the 2022 season. That means the dynamic Chubb-Hunt duo should be intact for at least two more seasons.
Now new deals for quarterback Baker Mayfield and cornerback Denzel Ward are Berry’s top priorities, with right guard Wyatt Teller and safety Ronnie Harrison also eligible for extensions.
Mayfield and Ward, though, are under contract through the 2022 season because Berry exercised the fifth-year options on their rookie deals in April. Both of them were drafted in the first round in 2018 — Mayfield first overall and Ward fourth overall in 2018.
A fifth-year option didn’t exist in Chubb’s contract because he wasn’t a first-round selection. He had been scheduled to become a free agent in March, until the Browns struck an agreement with him Saturday. The team has yet to announce the deal.
On June 24, Hunt, who has a Pro Bowl and an NFL rushing title on his resume, said Chubb deserved an extension. “Please pay that man,” Hunt said. There is no doubt Chubb’s teammates were elated about Saturday night’s news. Garrett, Mayfield, wide receiver Jarvis Landry and tight end David Njoku are among the Browns players who honored Chubb with congratulatory tweets.
Browns three-time Pro Bowl left guard Joel Bitonio raved about Chubb on Friday, calling him one of the great teammates he has had since he entered the NFL in 2014.
“He’s just a special guy, man. Like great teammates in my eight years here, Nick Chubb’s one of them,” Bitonio said. “He just does everything right off the field, on the field, you never hear him complain or really never hear him at all.”
In Chubb’s three regular seasons in the NFL, he has started 37 of 44 games and compiled 680 carries for 3,557 yards (5.2 average) and 28 touchdowns to go along with 72 catches for 577 yards and two TDs.
Chubb ran 298 times for 1,494 yards (5 average) and eight TDs in 2019, finishing runner-up to Tennessee Titans star Derrick Henry for the NFL rushing title. In 2020, Chubb missed four games with a sprained medial collateral ligament in his right knee,
but he returned and finished the regular season with 190 carries for 1,067 yards (5.6 average) and 12 TDs.
Chubb made the Pro Bowl for his performance in each of those two seasons after running 192 times for 996 yards (5.2 average) and eight TDs and catching two TD passes as a rookie.
Bitonio called Chubb “a freak of nature” and marveled at his strength in the weight room and dominance on the field.
“His uncanny ability to not get tackled [is impressive]. It’s broken tackles, stiff-arm, juke, finishing, speed, he just kind of does it all,” Bitonio said. “... There’s times where he can run someone over or run through somebody. There’s other times where he just runs down the sideline.”
With an average annual salary of $12.2 million, Chubb ranks sixth among the highest-paid running backs in the NFL, according to spotrac. com. Henry is fifth at $12.5 million a year. Christian McCaffrey of the Carolina Panthers is atop the market at $16 million per year.
The three-year extension means Chubb, 25, should be able to cash in on a new deal when he’s still younger than 30.
In the meantime, Chubb will be focused on winning with the Browns. He made it clear during mandatory minicamp in June he hoped to stay with them long term.
“Cleveland’s where I want to be,” he said then. “It would mean a lot. Cleveland drafted me however many years ago it was and trusted me and put their faith in me to come here and help build this culture.
“I don’t like uncertainty, and I know here in Cleveland what I have with the players and coaches and just the city of Cleveland. I don’t know how things would be anywhere else. Cleveland is where I want to be, and that’s my main focus, just being here in Cleveland.”
Chubb got his wish ahead of what the Browns believe can be a special season.