It sure sounds like the Nick Chubb era of Cleveland Browns football is done.
Per a recent report from Cleveland.com's Browns insider Mary Kay Cabot, Chubb is all but gone this offseason since Jerome Ford, the Browns' RB2, took a pay cut to stay with the team through his 2025 contract. Ford, who played significant snaps in 2024 because of Chubb's late start and subsequent late season ending broken foot, will be with the Browns until he's a free agent in 2026.
Ford's payday goes from $3.486 million to just $1.75 million, and it comes on the tail of the Browns going all in at running back by drafting both Quinshon Judkins and Dylan Sampson last weekend.
The pay cut signals that the Browns are going to move forward with Ford as their RB1 until proven otherwise, and they can now more easily carry him into the season because of the cut. Had he not taken it, they would've likely traded Ford and then attempted more aggressively to re-sign Chubb to a new deal.
Chubb likely out from Cleveland after Ford takes pay cut
With this Ford pay cut, the Browns' likeliest depth chart at running back includes him, Judkins, and Sampson. Pierre Strong Jr. will probably also fight to make a spot on the 53-man roster at running back, with Sampson his likeliest adversary.
Chubb has been rumored to be sought out by one NFC North team this offseason: the Chicago Bears. The team could really use another weapon on offense outside of Caleb Williams' passing, and with their newly revamped trenches, it's possible for Chubb to find success with the Bears in a competitive division.
Read more: Insider says Browns attempting Herculean effort to steal Nick Chubb from Bears
For Cleveland, letting Chubb walk is never going to be a great look, but they did the right thing by taking two highly rated running backs in the draft instead of waiting to see if Chubb would budge on whatever offer they provided to him.
They now have not one, but two potential replacements to Chubb's production, although it's almost impossible to expect Judkins or Sampson to replicate the ridiculous success Chubb had in the years prior to his terrible knee injury in 2023.
Other teams to keep an eye on who might want in on the Chubb sweepstakes include the Dallas Cowboys, who are always in the market for a consistent RB, and the New York Jets, who were recently looking to reportedly trade their RB1, Breece Hall.