The Cleveland Browns had a welcomed respite from their miserable 2024 NFL campaign when the franchise welcomed back running back Nick Chubb today against the Cincinnati Bengals.
In his first game back since the 2023 NFL season, Chubb had 14 opportunities to make plays, carrying the football 11 times for 22 yards and his first touchdown in over a year.
Chubb also caught one of his three targets through the air, finishing with 10 receiving yards on the afternoon.
While Chubb was featured early in the contest, the Browns did not play the veteran running back on every down as he’s been featured before.
After the 21-14 loss to the Bengals – Cleveland’s fifth consecutive loss on the season – on Sunday, head coach Kevin Stefanski revealed his reasons for limiting Chubb’s workload in his first NFL action this season (via 92.3 The Fan’s X account).
“No setbacks; just always trying to be smart with him,” Stefanski said, adding, “Want to make sure that we don’t put him in a bad spot. He came out of this thing good … he’ll be ready to roll.”
Despite Chubb’s limited impact on the field, the player’s first action of the season sparked the Browns offense to a season-best 336 total yards on Sunday.
Cleveland had not hit the 300-yard mark this season for an entire game.
Still, the offensive output on the scoreboard did not improve enough for the Browns to win against their AFC North rivals.
At 1-6, the Browns are longshots to make the NFL playoffs as only one team in the past 55 years has made the postseason with that starting record.