BEREA — No one was more excited to see running back Nick Chubb back on the field than Browns running backs coach Duce Staley. At the same time, there was a balancing act that had to go on for him as Chubb went through his first practices since last year’s knee injury this week.
“You guys know Nick,” Staley said Friday morning. “You got to save Nick from Nick. He wants to go out there, he wants to be on the scout team. He wants to run around on special teams. He wants to come over there and do drills. So you got to slow Nick down, and all the players and coaches see that and we feed off of that.”
Chubb returned to practice on Wednesday, and went through his first fully-padded practice on Thursday. It was the first time he had been on a football field participating since his right knee injury on Sept. 18, 2023, in Pittsburgh.
It’s not likely that Chubb, or running back Nyheim Hines, will be activated off the physically unable to perform list in order to play Sunday when the Browns (1-3) travel to the Washington Commanders (3-1).