Browns and Nick Chubb agree to contract extension

The Cleveland Browns have reportedly agreed to a three-year contract extension for running back Nick Chubb.

The deal, which has been agreed to “in principle,” will pay Chubb $36.6 million, with $20 million in guaranteed money, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport:

The deal goes against recent NFL beliefs that running backs are interchangeable and should not be given a second contract. Chubb, as was always the case, proved to be the exception to that unwritten rule, however.

A second-round draft pick in the 2018 NFL Draft out of Georgia, Chubb has made two trips to the Pro Bowl while firmly planting his name on the franchise’s all-time rushing list.

Chubb’s 1,494 rushing yards in 2019 are the highest total in franchise history for a Cleveland running back not named Jim Brown. After just three seasons, Chubb is seventh on the club’s all-time career rushing list and should pass Hall-of-Famer Marion Motley with a solid 2021 season.

Thanks to the general incompetence of then-head coach Hue Jackson in Chubb’s rookie year, as well as having fellow running back Kareem Hunt on the roster the past two seasons, Chubb has not been over-used during his with the Browns, totaling just 680 career carries. By comparison, Derrick Henry has 681 carries just in the past two seasons for the Tennessee Titans.

That combination of talent and relatively low use made Chubb an attractive player for the Browns to keep, even if it goes against the “norm” of today’s NFL.

Chubb’s $20 million in guaranteed money is currently the seventh-highest among NFL running backs, according to ESPN’s Jake Trotter.