BEREA, Ohio — The Cleveland Browns and star running back Nick Chubb have reached an agreement on a three-year, $36.6 million contract extension, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Saturday.
Chubb’s $20 million in guaranteed money is the seventh-highest total in the league among running backs. He will be a free agent again at age 29.
Chubb has been the backbone of the Cleveland offense the past two seasons, averaging 5.25 yards per carry during that span. In 2019, he came within 47 yards of besting Derrick Henry for the rushing title. Last season, Chubb missed four games because of a knee injury, but he still finished seventh in the league with 1,070 rushing yards.
Proving to be one of the top closers in the league, Chubb led the NFL with an average of more than 10 yards per carry in the fourth quarter of games last season.
During Cleveland’s first playoff victory in 26 years, Chubb delivered one of the game’s decisive plays, taking a screen pass 40 yards for a fourth-quarter touchdown, propelling the Browns to the 48-37 win in Pittsburgh.
Chubb, whom Cleveland selected out of Georgia in the second round of 2018 NFL draft, was entering the final season of his rookie deal.
“I think you all know the affinity that we have for him both as a player and as a person,” general manager Andrew Berry said when asked in the offseason about a potential Chubb extension. “He has modeled that over the first three years of his career here. I think that is something that we certainly see every day and that you all can see externally.”
Last summer, the Browns extended Chubb’s backfield sidekick, Kareem Hunt, to a two-year extension worth $13.25 million, keeping Hunt under contract in Cleveland through the 2022 season.