Nick Chubb: I'll Prove I'm 'The Undisputed Best Running Back In This League'
Ahead of his long-awaited return to NFL action on Sunday, Nick Chubb penned a heartfelt letter to Cleveland Browns fans.
The four-time Pro Bowl running back is expected to be active for the Browns' Week 7 home game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Chubb had been sidelined for more than a year after he suffered a devastating knee injury during Week 2 of last season. After a pair of surgeries to repair his torn ACL and MCL, the 28-year-old is finally ready to get back out there. And he's not planning on taking it slow.
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"I've tried to work my ass off every day to get us where we need to go, and even though we have gotten close, I feel like I have serious unfinished business," Chubb wrote in a letter posted on The Players' Tribune. "That's why it hurt me so bad to go down last season. We were just starting to cook."
Nick Chubb was carted off the field during Cleveland's Week 2 match-up against the Pittsburgh Steelers in September 2023.
(Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
Of course, this wasn't Chubb's "first rodeo," he explained in the letter. While playing collegiate ball at Georgia, the All-SEC player suffered a dislocated knee, three torn ligaments (posterior cruciate ligament, medial collateral and lateral collateral) and cartilage damage in a game against Tennessee.
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Against all odds, Chubb came back. And he plans to do it again.
"I can't stop until I prove to everybody that I'm the undisputed best running back in this league, and I definitely can't stop until we get the Browns back to the top of the AFC," Chubb wrote. "It's been too damn long."
Nick Chubb Thanks Cleveland Browns Fans
In the letter, Chubb took the opportunity to thank both Browns fans and the franchise for having his back through it all.
"When my agent called me to tell me the news, he said, 'I’ve never actually had a front office tell me anything like this. But they said that part of the reason they never entertained cutting you is because of how much you mean to the city,'" Chubb wrote. "That really meant the world to me. Look, I know the deal. I had no guaranteed money left. The Browns had all the leverage. They could’ve left me high and dry, like so many guys in this league. But they had my back. You all had my back."
Nick Chubb is expected to be back in the lineup for Cleveland on Sunday.
(Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)
Not to take anything away from Chubb's triumphant return, but he's re-joining a struggling (that's putting it nicely) Browns team that opened the season 1-5. Quarterback Deshaun Watson has been sacked a league-high 31 times, and the team traded star receiver Amari Cooper to the Buffalo Bills on Tuesday. In Chubb's absence, Jerome Ford, D'Onta Foreman and Pierre Strong led the way for the Browns' rushing attack. Cleveland is averaging 4.3 yards per carry and 97.2 rushing yards per game.
In other words, the Browns could certainly use a spark. Maybe Chubb is it.