There’s no way the Cleveland Browns could get back much for Nick Chubb in a trade

The Cleveland Browns fandom really shouldn’t expect much if the team moves on from Nick Chubb.

The Cleveland Browns are facing what could be their last season with a lot of noteworthy names. People like Joel Bitonio, Wyatt Teller, Amari Cooper and most sad of all, Nick Chubb, could become cap casualties next season. The team is going to see its cap-hit skyrocket after the Deshaun Watson deal fully matures, which will send the team scrambling to make room for it. That means guys are likely to be gone unless they take massive pay cuts.

Yet, whenever we talk about a guy possibly leaving the team (Baker Mayfield, Odell Beckham, Jarvis Landry), the talk centers around trade compensation, and most fans wholly overvalue the players. They misconstrue the movement nature in the NFL as if it’s the NBA. Teams usually don’t pay a high value for a player who’s past his rookie deal. The average NFL career is about three seasons, so when you’re talking about a player who’s on his second contract, you’re looking at a guy four or five years into the league.

This means he could be as old as 28, and in the NFL, that’s fairly ancient. Teams just aren’t going to move heaven and Earth for someone who is aging, especially in a position like running back. So while the idea of moving on from Chubb is stomach churning, it’s important to not expect much back.

Especially when you look at what’s happening currently with Dalvin Cook. Cook is about the same age as Chubb, and despite being a Pro Bowler, he’s still a free agent and unlikely to see anywhere close to his demand of $10 million per year. A fate similar to that is in store for Chubb if the wrong events play out.

The Cleveland Browns won’t get much back for Nick Chubb for one reason

The Browns may not want to trade or even cut Chubb, he’s a valuable player and firmly stands as the second-best running back the team has ever had in its history. Yet, Chubb plays running back, is 27 years old, and is watching the market for guys like him dry up. As seen above, Cook, the Vikings long-time running back who some thought was actually better than Chubb, received no trade interest from other teams

So the Vikings released him.

Meaning, anyone who thinks Chubb is getting a haul back in a trade will be wildly disappointed. Chubb isn’t Christian McCaffery. The former Carolina Panthers and current San Francisco 49ers running back is one-of-one, as the kids say, simply because he’s as good of a receiver as he is a running back.

In fact, McCaffery could likely change positions in the NFL and not miss a beat. It’s why the Panthers got back three picks in the 2023 draft (a second, third, and fourth-round pick) as well as a 2024 fifth-round pick. He’s versatile in ways Chubb isn’t.

Chubb is your standard give-and-go back, and if he starts breaking down, he can’t simply become a slot receiver, like McCaffery could. So taking what you can get for Chubb, assuming the Browns do move on from him next year, would be the best the team can do.

Cook has proven that there isn’t a market for high-priced, one-dimensional, running backs anymore.

• Published on 06/13/2023 at 23:05 PM
• Last updated at 06/13/2023 at 23:05 PM