Nick Chubb is circling Joe Thomas territory for the Cleveland Browns and that’s not a good thing

Both Nick Chubb and Joe Thomas may waste Hall of Fame careers on losing clubs.

The Cleveland Browns are not doing well this season. They’re looking at yet another losing season and will likely secure it after the Cincinnati Bengals game on Sunday. The Browns are beat up and are missing key players on both sides of the ball to some degree. They’re limping their way to the finish line and their star players, Myles Garrett and Nick Chubb are wasting away on losing squads.

The good news for Garrett, defensive ends play long into their 30s. So there’s still time to turn things around for him. The bad news for Chubb, 30 is usually when a running back hits the proverbial wall. Considering Chubb is already 27 (will be on Dec. 23) and is quickly getting older and more beat up.

He’s so far played every game this year, a first over the last three years, and he’s playing pretty well. He’s already secured a 1,000+ yard season and has a YPC of 5.0, his career average. Yet a declining offensive line and occasional ineptitude from head coach Kevin Stefanski have hindered the future Hall of Famer as the season draws to a close.

That’s not the worst part for Chubb, however. With the season lost and concerns mounting about the future of the club, Chubb is looking at a career that mirrors that of Joe Thomas, another future Browns’ Hall of Famer.

And that’s not a good thing.

Nick Chubb and Joe Thomas are both in danger of being defined by losing

Joe Thomas’ career is defined by the facts that he was the best left tackle of his generation and that he only had one season of winning football in his entire Browns tenure. He played for over a decade and retired just before the likes of Baker Mayfield, Denzel Ward and Chubb arrived in 2018 and help reshape the club.

Chubb looked like he’d be the Hall of Famer player to buck that trend, alongside Garrett, and with 2020 the team never looked better. A real contender for the AFC Championship game but then Andrew Berry mettled and the team that Jack Dorsey built, was stripped apart year after year.

Now the Browns are 5-8 and looking at salary cap hell over the next few years. Chubb isn’t going anywhere, not anytime soon that is, and even if he wanted to, Berry never does what’s right. So Chubb is stuck here, even if he doesn’t want to be.

The club is wasting away his prime. He’s arguably the best running back the club has ever had, even on par with Jim Brown, and to think he’ll only have one postseason run is heartbreaking. That may change in 2023, granted, anything is possible but right now Chubb’s career is going the same way as Thomas’. A great talent, with Hall of Fame potential, is held back by “experts” who know enough to get hired but not so much that they succeed.

If what happened to Thomas happens again to Chubb (and even Garrett), then the Browns franchise will never be able to wash off that failure.