Running back Nick Chubb is set to return to the Browns lineup for the first time since the second week of the 2023 season.
Chubb suffered a major knee injury in that game and had a pair of surgeries as part of a recovery process that has finally reached the point where Chubb is ready to play. Chubb described that comeback in a piece for The Players Tribune that was released on Wednesday and he made it clear that he isn’t planning to ease himself back into the fray.
“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 said. “That’s why it hurt me so bad to go down last season. We were just starting to cook. . . . 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. It’s been too damn long.”
The Browns season has gotten off to a rough start and Chubb’s return might not be enough to right the ship, but getting him back offers some hope that better things might lay ahead in Cleveland.
The NFL has made clear that any violent gestures, including finger guns, are not allowed. In the first five weeks, the league cracked down on the violent depictions with penalty flags and fines.
Eight players were penalized and fined the first four weeks of the season for depicting violence, with two more penalties and three more fines in Week 5. Fines have averaged $12,697, with Bengals receiver Ja’Marr Chase paying $19,697 for a Week 5 touchdown celebration that included a violent gesture.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the penalties and fines will continue until players stop the depictions of violence.
“It’s a long-standing policy and we are going to enforce that,” Goodell said, via Rob Maaddi of the Associated Press. “Troy had a direct conversation with the union I think just last week about it. We’re going to continue on that focus. We don’t think it’s appropriate in those circumstances and sends the wrong messages. So, we’ll continue to do that.”
The NFL has made a couple of changes to the Week 8 schedule, putting the battle between the No. 1 and No. 2 overall picks of this year’s draft in a more prominent viewing window.
Bears at Commanders, originally scheduled for 1 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 27, will now be played at 4:25 p.m. ET on CBS. That makes it likely that the No. 1 broadcast team headed by Jim Nantz and Tony Romo will be on the call.
With that, the NFL has flexed Eagles at Bengals to 1 p.m. on CBS.
The primetime games for Week 8 all remain the same. The Vikings will visit the Rams on Thursday, Oct. 24. Dallas will play at San Francisco for Sunday Night Football. And the Giants will play at the Steelers on Monday, Oct. 28.
The Lions aren’t going to replace Aidan Hutchinson’s production with one player, but they do need someone to fill his spot on the roster.
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com reports that they will be signing defensive end Isaiah Thomas off of the Bengals’ practice squad this week. Hutchinson had surgery in Dallas after fracturing his tibia and fibula in the Lions’ win over the Cowboys.
It’s not the first time that an athlete with that name has landed in Detroit, although the previous Thomas was a basketball star and spelled his first name differently.
Thomas was a 2022 seventh-round pick and appeared in 10 games for the Browns during his rookie season. He had nine tackles, a sack, a fumble recovery, and two passes defensed, but failed to make the cut in 2023 and moved on to the Bengals after getting waived again this summer.
It was reported over the weekend that the Browns are expecting Nick Chubb to return to play in their Week 7 matchup with the Bengals.
Chubb has been sidelined since Week 2 of last season, when he suffered a serious knee injury.
Head coach Kevin Stefanski did not make any major declarations about Chubb’s availability, only saying they’ll continue to take it one day at a time.
“Yeah, Nick’s working very hard,” Stefanski said in his news conference. “Just spent some time with him just now. He’s going to take this thing day by day and see where we go. But this only comes with hard work.”
Chubb has averaged 5.3 yards per carry since entering the league in 2018, recording a career-high 1,525 yards with 12 touchdowns in 2022. He recorded 170 yards in his two games last year.
But given the nature of Chubb’s injury, Stefanski was asked if expectations for the running back should be tempered as he returns to play.
“I’m not so concerned about that,” Stefanski said. “I mean, I understand the question. I think for me and for Nick and for this team, he just wants to do his job, whatever that may be, but we’re not getting too far ahead of ourselves. Really just worried about the day-to-day with him.”
