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The Cleveland Browns face a tall task of keeping their core together this offseason, but one player reportedly isn’t going anywhere.
According to Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, the Browns “have no plans” to trade star running back Nick Chubb—who earned second-team All-Pro honors last season—before the 2023 campaign.
Cabot noted that the Browns “intend to keep the core together to have the best chance to get to the Super Bowl.” In addition to Chubb, she named Wyatt Teller, Joel Bitonio, Myles Garrett and Denzel Ward as players who Cleveland remains committed to keeping ahead of quarterback Deshaun Watson’s first full year with the team.
However, the Browns need to make some moves to get under the salary cap by the start of the new league year on March 15. The team is currently over the cap by more than $13.2 million. On Sunday, Cabot reported that Watson would be willing to restructure his contract “to help the Browns get under the salary cap, and to clear some space to add quality veterans via free agency or trades.”
Chubb is set to count for a $14.9 million cap hit in 2023, and Cabot wrote that trading him wouldn’t recoup the necessary value for such a move because “the Browns wouldn’t get the first-round pick for Chubb that some speculate they could.”
The 27-year-old is coming off his fourth straight Pro Bowl selection after finishing third in the NFL with 1,525 rushing yards and tied for fifth with 12 touchdowns. He will remain a focal point of the Cleveland offense next year, which should be more effective with a full year from Watson, who was suspended for the first 11 games of the 2022 season for violating the NFL’s conduct policy following sexual assault and misconduct allegations from more than two dozen massage therapists.
Keeping Chubb in the fold will help Cleveland bounce back from its 7-10 campaign, as he is undoubtedly one of the best running backs in the league.
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Doric Sam