Nick Chubb to sign one-day contract with Browns, retire in Cleveland, per report

Chubb will hang up his cleats with the team that drafted him

Sep 24, 2026 at 4:43 pm ET • 1 min read

Veteran running back Nick Chubb will return to the Cleveland Browns, but not as another option in the backfield for the 2026 season. Chubb intends to sign a one-day contract and retire as a Brown, according to ESPN. He announced his retirement in August, concluding an eight-year career.

His brief stint in Cleveland will bring Chubb back to the city where he spent most of his NFL career. The first seven of Chubb's eight years as a pro came with the Browns, as did all four of his Pro Bowl selections. The franchise selected him out of Georgia as the No. 35 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, and he delivered on expectations with a prolific run as its top running back.

While injuries in 2023 and 2024 upended his career, Chubb was nothing short of productive over his first five seasons. He finished four rushing yards shy of the 1,000-yard mark as a rookie, and he comfortably eclipsed that threshold in every campaign from 2019-22. He also tallied at least eight touchdowns in each of his first five years with the Browns.

Nick Chubb Stats (2018-22)

Year	Carries	Rush Yards	Rush TD	Receptions	Rec. Yards	Rec. TD
2018	192	996	8	20	149	2
2019	298	1,494	8	36	278	0
2020	190	1,067	12	16	150	0
2021	228	1,259	8	20	174	1
2022	302	1,525	12	27	239	1

Just two games into the 2023 season, Chubb tore his MCL and sustained damage to his ACL, which cost him the rest of the year and forced him to sit nearly the entire first half of the 2024 campaign. He played eight games upon his return before missing the rest of the season with a broken foot.

The Browns did not re-sign Chubb after the 2024 season, and he inked a one-year deal with the Houston Texans for 2025. There, he started nine of the 15 games he played and totaled 122 carries for 506 yards and three touchdowns, alongside Woody Marks. He was a key member of a Texans team that advanced to the AFC divisional round.

Chubb became a free agent again at the end of his lone year in Houston and called it a career this summer.

"Today's the day I've been avoiding for a while," Chubb said in a social media post on Aug. 21. "Twelve-year-old me could never imagine this day, and 30-year-old me is wondering where all the time has gone. I've known for some time now, but I'm finally ready to share that I'm done playing football. I wanted to end my career on a healthy note, along with a winning season, and I was able to do that."