Nick Chubb’s Staying Power
As Nick Chubb prepares to head into the final season of his four-year rookie contract, he thinks the stability of the Browns makes him want to stay in Cleveland.
In a Zoom meeting before the first minicamp practice, Chubb said, “I don’t like uncertainty, and I know here in Cleveland what I have with the players and coaches. This is the City of Cleveland, and I don’t know how things will be anywhere else. So Cleveland is where I want to be and that is my main focus —– to be here in Cleveland.”
A second-round pick by the Browns in the 2018 draft, the former Georgia Bulldog running back believes that his agent has talked to the team about a new extension, which could net him a salary of at least $10 million a season. As a matter of fact, according to the website spotrac.com, the market value for Chubb is around $12,121,000, a value that would place him as the sixth-highest paid running back in the NFL.
Resurgent Browns
And Chubb also has some high confidence in the organization.
“Cleveland drafted me however many years ago it was, trusted me, and put their faith in me to come here and help build this culture of this team. I’ve been a part of it,” he said. “I feel like, yeah, Cleveland is where I want to be and hope everything can work out in that direction.”
In his offseason home workouts, he focused on becoming a bigger, stronger, and faster running back, while also working on catching to become a viable receiving option out of the backfield for Baker Mayfield.
Chubb opted out of OTAs and joining his teammates to do some workouts at home.
“Ultimately, it was my decision to just stay home,” he said. “I feel like I get great work at home, I train really hard and I’m able to go at my own pace. That was the biggest thing for me to stay home and train. I knew I’d be ready when it was time to come back for good.”
Faith In the Club
Overall, regarding the contract extension rumors, even if they extend into the start of the regular season, Chubb currently has no deadline set. He also has faith in the team that even if he doesn’t get a contract extension before the start of the new season, he knows that there will be some fireworks generated by the team.
“I hope we can pick up where we left off,” he said. “We had a great team last year and did some great things. It is still a process. We cannot come in here and get too far ahead of ourselves. We have got to still take it day by day, play by play and just continue to get better in every area.”
That quote also shows motivation to improve. Interestingly, Chubb took the motivation from Coach of the Year Kevin Stefanski to sit with the Divisional Playoff loss against the Chiefs to look ahead and potentially advance deeper into the playoffs for the 2021 campaign.
Nick Chubb is a top-four running back according to the Pro Football Focus, and as he prepares to enter his 2021 campaign, he looks to make this contract year a highly productive one.