The Cleveland Browns are going to need to heavily rely on their running game in 2026 given the fact that the quarterback situation is once again uncertain. New head coach Todd Monken cooked up some of the best rushing attacks of all time with Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry over the past two seasons, and while that sort of production may be unreasonable to expect in Cleveland, there is enough talent in place to have an above-average attack led by Quinshon Judkins and Dylan Sampson.
Behind those two, the running back room is a bit up in the air. Raheim Sanders and Ahmani Marshall are behind them in the depth chart, so it’s not impossible that GM Andrew Berry could look to bring in a little more help before the season starts.
Perhaps that help could come in the form of a very familiar face in Nick Chubb? Garrett Bush laid out the scenario where that could come to fruition.
“If somebody goes down and there’s some developments, I would think that they could give Nick Chubb a call. I love him to death. He’ll retire as a Cleveland Brown, but for me, I’m going to go with the young guys,” said Bush.
Sanders showed some promise last season and had a few solid runs down the stretch as an undrafted rookie. Marshall is a rookie undrafted free agent just like Sanders was last year and didn’t put up huge numbers in college at Appalachian State, but he showed enough explosiveness on tape to encourage the Browns to give him an extended look.
Bush isn’t the first to touch on the possibility of Chubb returning recently, but he has the right take. This team is establishing a young foundation for the future, and Chubb is on his last legs and would take reps away from other young talents who need them.
He is also 30 and should be chasing a Super Bowl in the last years of his career. He was solid for the Houston Texans last year with 506 yards and three touchdowns on 4.1 yards per carry, so he appears to have a little juice left.
That juice shouldn’t be wasted on a young Browns team. He needs to join a contender and the Browns need to keep feeding all the young guys. We’ll see him when he ends up in the Ring of Honor, but he doesn’t need to put on a Browns uniform again to make that happen.
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