Breakdown of RB Nick Chubb’s restructured contract with the Browns

Looking at how Chubb’s final year looked like before and after the restructure.

The Cleveland Browns restructured the contract of RB Nick Chubb in mid-April, which resulted in a significant amount of cap savings ($9.925 million). It was not a contract extension, though, so he is still scheduled to be a free agent after the 2024 season. Let’s take a look at how Chubb’s contract originally looked heading into his final season vs. how it looks now:

• Originally, Chubb was set to have a cap hit in 2024 of $16.2 million. None of his $11.775 million base salary would have been guaranteed, so if the Browns would have cut Chubb, he only would have accounted for $4 million in dead money against the cap (due to the signing bonus from his contract).
• Keep in mind that the signing bonuses are actually paid to the player in the year they are received. Therefore, cutting Chubb means he would be making no money in 2024, and teams would surely be hesitant to sign him to anything with guaranteed money, not knowing if his knee will hold up after multiple surgeries.
• Instead, what Cleveland does is say, “we’ll pay you $2.05 million guaranteed in new money this year, and it’ll be guaranteed, despite your injury.” $1.125 million of that is his new base salary (the minimum for a veteran), and the other $925,000 is a signing bonus. Because it is a restructure, for cap purposes, Chubb’s original $4 million cap hit stands, plus the base salary and new portion of the signing bonus.
• Originally, Chubb would have had a per-game roster bonus that was worth up to $425,000. That has been scrapped and replaced with a $225,000 workout bonus, reportedly. It appears that those workout bonuses could be tied to his rehab.
• Chubb isn’t completely missing out on that original big base salary number that he had. It sounds like he has around $10 million worth of incentives that he can earn in 2024 “based on performance levels he had achieved prior to injury.” Specifics of those performance metrics have not been made publicly available. If he returns to his former self and in time for the season, one would think that the incentives are attainable. If he misses a good portion of the start of the season, though, it might be difficult.

In the end, injuries suck, especially when you’re a running back without guaranteed money at the end of your contract. However, given the circumstances, GM Andrew Berry did what he could to still give Chubb a little bit of new money, with an opportunity to earn everything back.