In the aftermath of Nick Chubb‘s season-ending knee injury, his old running mate is in Cleveland.
Former Chiefs and Browns running back Kareem Hunt is visiting Cleveland on Tuesday, NFL Network Insiders Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero reported, per sources.
Chubb suffered ligament damage in the Browns’ Monday night loss to the Steelers, Rapoport reported. Following the game, head coach Kevin Stefanski confirmed that Chubb would be out for the season.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Stefanski said the team would move forward with Jerome Ford, who posted 106 rushing yards on Monday, as the feature back, but was nevertheless looking to add to the RB room.
“You don’t replace Nick Chubb,” Stefanski said, via team transcript. “You just don’t do that. Great players in the league, you look around, they go out. It’s always not one person that replaces a player of his caliber. So everybody’s got to do a little bit more, a little bit more everywhere. But we’ll look at options there in terms of who we bring in.”
Asked specifically about adding Hunt, Stefanski to get into any details.
“We’re early stages of looking at different options right now, so I can’t really speak to anybody specific,” he said.
Hunt, 28, spent the previous four seasons complementing Chubb in the Browns backfield and when the former was at his best, Cleveland had an argument for possessing the NFL’s top backfield tandem. In 2021 and 2022, Hunt’s usage and production waned.
He’s been a free agent since the end of the 2022 campaign and had visits with the Saints and Colts early in August, but nothing stuck. This is a different situation, though.
Even though Hunt’s last couple of campaigns in Cleveland weren’t exactly blissful, he knows Stefanski’s offense, he knows the locker room, and the Browns know with 15 games remaining sans Chubb that they need some help in a hurry.
