Nick Chubb’s injury shows that NFL RBs deserve a risk premium

At the beginning there were hardly any attacks Cleveland Browns–Pittsburgh Steelers Week 2 Football game on Monday evening. The two teams played hot potato, turning the ball back and forth, and the end of the first quarter had to be played again after replay.

However, there was one offensive player who was reliable from the start: Nick Chubb.

One of the best running backs in the league was running for 106 yards during the Browns’ Week 1 win over the Cincinnati Bengalsand was ready to go for even more in Week 2. The Browns rode Chubb early and often, with him accumulating 59 yards on nine carries against the Steelers. On his tenth rush, he ran for what was likely the final five yards of his 2023 season.

Minkah Fitzpatrick drilled Chubb right in the knee, injuring himself. For a moment, it seemed Chubb would be fine. He looked like he was just tainted When one of his teammates tried to help him up from the ground, Chubb pulled his hand away, undid his chin strap and rolled over in pain. When Joe Buck told the television audience that the replay would not be shown, a collective groan from the over 68,000 viewers confirmed that Chubb’s mangled knee was not fit for the air. One bad hit and now the 2023 season is likely over for one of the NFL’s most consistent running backs, after just 170 yards and just over five quarters.

Chubb signed a three-year contract extension with the Browns in 2021. At the time, he led the league in yards per carry since 2018 — among running backs who carried the ball at least 150 times — with a 5.23 average. That extension guaranteed him $20 million and made him the fifth-highest paid running back in the league about $12 million per year.

His replacement, Jerome Ford, took over the primary running back duties for the remainder of the game and explained, yard by yard, why running backs are not compensated commensurate with the work required of them during the season. The second-year, fifth-round draft pick rushed for 106 yards on 6.6 yards per carry. He also caught three passes for 25 yards and a touchdown, and the Browns left Pittsburgh with a 22-20 victory.

Ford came into the game and was an immediate impact player. Ford’s base salary for 2023 – $870,000.

Long-term deals for running backs may not be an option, but the NFLPA needs to find a way for these players to receive some sort of risk reward to compensate them for the hits they take. It starts in their hometowns, when they are the best player on a team and win the entire game. Then they come to college and are driven there by trainers. Years of unpaid top career for a running back and then they get to the NFL. They sign a time frame contract, and if they’re great, The team receives the reward of option to Franchise tag running backs until their flowering period is probably complete.

Chubb is 27and when his contract expires in 2024, he will be 30 years old. AAfter a serious knee injury – a second one in the same knee, the first happened to men university – It’s hard to imagine the Browns offering him a multi-year deal, especially since they’ll have to cover every dollar of Deshaun Watson’s deal.

Now the Browns will begin using up a talented fifth-round draft pick. If Ford continues to produce, they will continue to give him the ball and he won’t make a million dollars in a season until 2026. Then they have the option to hit him with the double franchise tag, which would put him at 29. He probably won’t lead the NFL in yards per carry, and the Browns will be gun-shy when it comes to signing players Ford is inking a new contract after dealing with Watson and that Chubb injury.

There is no position more dangerous in the NFL as a running back. Not only are their careers the shortest, but as a position group She Earn less than any other player where collisions are part of the job description.

In other dangerous jobs in this country, people are compensated extra for the physical punishment they endure on the job. Running backs definitely deserve some risk compensation to make up for the contract amounts and length they don’t receive compared to their counterparts. They are used as crash test dummies. One of these breaks, and then another, usually newer, is sent right back into the car to cause another accident.

The actual value some hazard pay.