Nick Chubb continues to defy the odds and there’s an increasing chance the Cleveland Browns star will be on the field early in the season.

There have been a handful of good signs for Chubb, both leading up to and at training camp. The latest bit of positive news comes from Browns insider Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, who believes Chubb will be activated from the PUP list soon, making him eligible to face the Dallas Cowboys in Week 1.

“The way you see him run and cut, it looks like he can do football activities pretty soon,” Cabot said during an appearance on the “Ken Carman Show with Anthony Lima” on Thursday, August 1. “I think at some point during this camp, he will be activated and available for one of those first three games.”

Cabot also noted that the Browns are taking things slow with Chubb but all indications are that the four-time Pro Bowler is close.

“Whenever I see him do something great — like squat 540 pounds or run sprints in front of Jimmy Haslam — I think it’s getting close and then they pump the brakes,” Cabot said. “I don’t have a great handle on when he will be back but he looks good physically. That bodes well for the near future.”

Browns Say Nick Chubb Still ‘Little Ways’ Away

The Browns are indeed playing the slow game with Chubb, and rightly so. He’s coming off a serious knee injury that required a pair of knee surgeries.

“I mean, look, Nick, he’s Batman, right? Like, we are incredibly pleased with the work that he’s put in, the progress that he’s made,” Browns general manager Andrew Berry said on July 29. “You know, he still has a little ways to go, but we’re really happy to see where he is as we enter camp and look forward to him to continue to improve the health of the knee.”

When asked more specifically on when Chubb could return, Berry responded: “We’ll deal with it day by day.”

Chubb and the Browns agreed to a restructured contract this offseason. The move chopped down Chubb’s base salary of around $12 million and converted much of that into incentives. It lowered Chubb’s cap hit to a manageable $6.275 million.

It may not be the driving force behind his plans for the year, but the sooner he gets on the field, the sooner he can produce and cash in based on those incentives.

Browns Running Back Room is Banged Up

The Browns are dealing with various injuries in the running back room beyond Chubb. Veteran free agent signing Nyheim Hines is still rebounding from an ACL injury he suffered in a freak jet ski accident in 2023. Hines is on the non-football injury list.

The Browns are also without D’Onta Foreman, another new face. The veteran back was hospitalized due to an injury during training camp but quickly rejoined the team. A timeline for his return is still uncertain.

“You know, obviously very, very scary,” Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski said on Friday, August 2. “And credit to our medical staff, you’re always being cautious there, and they followed protocols and made sure that he got great treatment right there. Saw him yesterday when he got back, was tired, so he’s getting plenty of rest, but scary. And thank God he’s okay.”

That leaves Jerome Ford, Pierre Strong Jr., John Kelly Jr., and undrafted free agent Aidan Robbins to take on the load. If Foreman is out for an extended period, the Browns could look to add another running back.