Nick Chubb is headed back to Cleveland.
The Browns announced on Thursday that Chubb will be in the building on Friday to sign a one-day contract and retire as a member of the franchise.
Chubb announced his retirement back in August.
While Chubb spent the 2025 season with the Texans, he played the rest of his career with the Browns. The No. 35 overall pick of the 2018 draft, Chubb registered 6,843 yards with 51 touchdowns for Cleveland — landing at No. 3 on the franchise’s all-time list behind Jim Brown and Leroy Kelly.
Chubb is one of just four players in NFL history to retire having averaged 5.0 yards per carry on more than 1,000 attempts. The other three are Brown, Joe Perry, and Jamaal Charles.
Chubb is set to address the media in Cleveland on Friday afternoon.
Browns Clips
A couple of key Panthers players saw their practice participation move in different directions on Thursday.
Wide receiver Jalen Coker missed practice with an ankle injury. He was listed as a limited participant on Wednesday. Linebacker Jaelan Phillips (back) missed that practice, but he was a full participant on Thursday.
Coker’s fellow wideout Xavier Legette (knee) was not on Wednesday’s report, but he also missed practice. Linebacker Devin Lloyd (calf), safety Nick Scott (rib), and linebacker Claudin Cherelus (shoulder) missed practice for the second straight day.
Defensive tackle Bobby Brown (back), linebacker Patrick Jones (back), and tight end Darren Waller (rest) were listed as full participants in practice.
Panthers linebacker Devin Lloyd was named the NFC defensive player of the week on Wednesday, but he wasn’t on the practice field later in the day.
Lloyd did not take part in practice due to a calf injury. The issue did not stop him from intercepting two passes and returning one of them for a touchdown during Carolina’s blowout win over the Falcons in Week 2.
The Panthers were also missing Jaelan Phillips. The pass rusher was out with a back injury and head coach Dave Canales said that both players are day-to-day heading into their Week 3 game against the Browns.
Linebacker Claudin Cherelus (shoulder), safety Nick Scott (rib), and tight end Darren Waller (rest) were out of practice as well. Wide receiver Jalen Coker (ankle) was a limited participant while defensive tackle Bobby Brown (back) and linebacker Patrick Jones (back) fully participated.
With Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart reportedly heading for season-ending knee surgery, the Giants have to make a decision about the quarterback position moving forward.
Option A: The Jameis Winston experience, and everything that goes along with it — good, bad, and/or highly entertaining.
Option B: Sign a free agent and see if he would be a better option to win games. At this point, however, most guys who are available would be unlikely to be able to start. Jimmy Garoppolo is the best option.
Option C: Make a trade.
There are some options. Here are some of the ones we noticed after perusing the various rosters and depth charts.
Derek Carr: He’s still on the Saints reserve-retired list. A trade would be required, if there’s mutual interest.
Anthony Richardson: If the Colts would be comfortable with Riley Leonard as the understudy to Daniel Jones, the Colts could finally get value for the fourth overall pick in the 2023 draft.
Joe Flacco: John Harbaugh won a Super Bowl with Flacco in Baltimore. And Flacco has repeatedly shown he can still play.
Shedeur Sanders: If the Browns are willing to move on from Sanders, Harbaugh possibly would want Shedeur. The Ravens were going to draft him in 2025, but he didn’t want to back up Lamar Jackson.
Mason Rudolph: He has played a lot, and he may not have much of a future in Pittsburgh.
Sam Howell: He’s the backup to Dak Prescott, and he has plenty of starting experience; the Cowboys could elevate Joe Milton III to take Prescott’s place.
J.J. McCarthy: Jim Harbaugh loves him. John Harbaugh could be intrigued by him.
Gardner Minshew: If the Cardinals are content to have Carson Beck as the backup to Jacoby Brissett, why not? He has 47 career starts.
Mac Jones: He’s in the last year of his contract, and he played well last year in place of Brock Purdy.
The Giants also could pilfer a player from a practice squad. Possibilities (not many) include Will Levis (Jets), Josh Johnson (Bengals), Joe Milton III (Cowboys), and Max Brosmer (Vikings).
When Deshaun Watson was last on the field in Cleveland for a preseason game, he was serenaded with boos from the home crowd that he called “disrespectful” and “personal” in a postgame press conference.
In the month since that game, Watson has been named the Browns’ starting quarterback and he played one of his best games since coming to Cleveland to lead the team to a win in Tampa in Week 2. That ensured he would remain in the lineup for the team’s home opener against the Panthers this Sunday and he was asked at a Wednesday press conference about the reception he expects to receive.
Watson said “we’re past” the August unpleasantness and said there’s “great energy” around the team that he expects will remain in place when they hit the field this weekend.
“I don’t ever try to go to war with the fans,” Watson said, via 92.3 The Fan. “Ready for support, ready to feel their energy, ready to get this big [win] for the city of Cleveland and continue this great feeling we have this week. That’s my motto is just keep pushing forward and finding ways to win on Sunday. Take advantage of the opposing team and get a W.”
The Week 2 win might provide Watson with a different reaction than he got the last time he played in front of Browns fans, but the dismal overall results of the trade that brought him to Cleveland means that it probably won’t take much for those good feelings to disappear and the boos to start raining down once again. That may not be how Watson or the Browns would like things to be, but it is the bed they’ve made and it will take more than one win to erase all that’s gone down in the past.
The Browns got a win in Tampa in Week 2 and kicker Andre Szmyt’s role in making it happen was recognized by the NFL on Wednesday.
Szmyt accounted for 11 of the Browns’ points in a 23-19 road win over the Buccaneers. He made all three field goals that he tried during the win and was also goon on both of his extra point attempts.
The NFL announced that Szmyt has been named the AFC special teams player of the week. He previously won the award in Week 3 of the 2025 season.
Szmyt is now 4-of-4 on field goals and 3-of-3 on extra points so far this season.
The Panthers have made a couple of roster moves official.
With news emerging that Jonathon Brooks will undergo core muscle surgery, Carolina has placed the running back on injured reserve.
He will reportedly miss at least six weeks.
As a corresponding move, the Panthers have signed safety Isaiah Simmons to the 53-man roster from the club’s practice squad.
Carolina had elevated Simmons to the gameday roster for each of the first two games. He has played 80 percent of the club’s special teams snaps.
The Panthers will be on the road to face the Browns in Week 3.
The Browns got their first win of the season in Tampa on Sunday and it was also Todd Monken’s first win as an NFL head coach.
It has been almost four decades since Monken took his first college coaching job and the path to getting the victory included a lengthy weather delay before the Browns could shut the door on the Buccaneers for good. On Monday, Monken was asked if he ever thought that his first win would play out that way and his answer transitioned from saying it isn’t about him to offering a reminder that the goal isn’t just to win once.
“It’s a players’ game, and we got a lot to clean up, coaching and playing, and we took a giant step from Week 1 to Week 2,” Monken said, via a transcript from the team. “So that’ll be the message we come back Wednesday is, ‘So what, now what?’ Are we willing to take that same jump? Or is it now, all of a sudden, we’ve arrived, because it’s week to week. You guys saw the scores, you guys know how this goes, every team’s a different matchup, and we didn’t turn the ball over, which helped us. In that first game we turned it over two of the first four drives, so basically, ‘So what, now what?’ What are we going to do this week to continue to improve? And we got the right guys to do it, that’s what I love about our group, because they’re going to be ready to go to work on Wednesday.”
Sustained success has been elusive in Cleveland since the Browns re-entered the league in 1999 and Monken’s response underscores how much the team still has to do in order to get where he wants them to be.
Deshaun Watson played one of his best games since his trade to the Browns on Sunday, helping power the club to a 23-19 victory over Tampa Bay.
In his Monday video conference, head coach Todd Monken told reporters that Watson was the club’s offensive player of the game.
“I was happy for Deshaun,” Monken said. “He made a number of plays with his legs. Played with confidence. He let it rip. You could see the difference from Week 1 to Week 2, and I think we’re just going to grow together.”
It’s clear at this point that Watson will be the starting quarterback for Cleveland’s home opener against Carolina on Sunday. He finished Sunday’s game 24-of-30 for 238 yards with a pair of touchdowns. He also rushed for 22 yards.
That came after there were reports leading up to the game that the Browns would evaluate the QB play following Sunday’s matchup with Tampa Bay — the implication being that Cleveland could turn to Shedeur Sanders.
But even as Watson played well, it’s going to take more good performances for the questions about who will start at quarterback to stop.
“Do I love dealing with it every week? Of course not. You guys keep asking, which is a lot of fun,” Monken said, tongue-in-cheek. “But the reality is, of course — of course. And I’m happy for Deshaun, the way he’s played, and I expected improvement, and I expect continued improvement.
“There’s a lot of football left in him — he just hasn’t played in a while. And learning our system and trying to get him consistent with his drops and his reads is part of the process. He’s like every player. I see him as a young player. I know people don’t want to see it that way, and I haven’t been here. But I see him as still a very young player that is going to continue to grow.”
The reality is, Watson is far from a very young player — he’s 31 and has been in the league since 2017. But if Watson continues to play as he did on Sunday, then Monken will be more and more vindicated for defying the fanbase by playing him.
After the schedule for the 2026 season was released in the spring, Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield said he had the team’s Week 2 game against the Browns circled.
Mayfield began his career with the Browns and was traded away after Cleveland opted to go with Deshaun Watson as their quarterback. Mayfield was fired up for the chance to hand his former team a loss, but things did not play out that way on Sunday in Tampa.
The Bucs had a 10-point lead in the third quarter, but gave it up before a lengthy weather delay late in the fourth quarter. The Bucs were driving when the delay began, but couldn’t finish the job and lost 23-19. After the game, Mayfield was asked if it was more painful because of who beat them.
“It just stings more because we’re 0-2,” Mayfield said.
The Bucs had four turnovers in their Week 1 loss to the Bengals, but they only turned the ball over once against the Browns. They had two drives end in the red zone without touchdowns, however, and a couple of second half drives that resulted in quick punts that kept the Browns in the game.
“Frustrated because it’s close,” Mayfield said. “You can feel it. You can see it. We’re moving the ball at times, and then just shooting ourselves in the foot. So, that makes it more frustrating when you know you’re right there.”
The Bucs will need to find a more consistent offensive approach in a hurry or Mayfield will be playing out the string before his new contract extension kicks in next year.
