Nick Chubb, Cleveland Browns both win with new contract structure in 2024

The Cleveland Browns never wanted to cut Nick Chubb but Andrew Berry knew something needed to be done about his salary. With Chub coming off a torn ACL and MCL, Berry called his contract the “elephant in the room” when the offseason began.

Chub was set to make right around $12 million with a cap hit of $16 million. That’s a lot of money to commit to a running back but Chubb is well worth it when healthy. The question comes down to how healthy he will be.

Thankfully, he’s going to be answering that while still wearing the orange and brown as Chubb agreed to a new contract with the Browns. Ian Rapoport says the new structure will lower his base salary and cap hit, but Chubb will still have a chance to make the money back with incentives.

Chubb has proven in the past he can return from a serious injury when he bounced back from a torn ACL in 2015. His career appeared threatened at the time but he was able to play two more productive seasons at Georgia before being selected by Cleveland in 2018.

This was a win for both Nick Chubb and the Browns

There will be claims the Browns were never going to move on from Chubb and while they might have been bluffing, they did need to put the idea on the table. Without that, there was no reason for Chubb to renegotiate his guaranteed money.

Having said that, this is a win for both parties.

Cleveland gets to keep the No. 4 rushing yardage leader in team history — and they’ve protected themselves financially if he’s unable to return to health. Chubb gets to stay where he’s comfortable and can still earn the full $16 million if he proves to be the superhero the Dawg Pound believes him to be.

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