Nick Chubb Retires From the NFL After Eight Bruising, Historic Seasons
Four-time Pro Bowler Nick Chubb announced his retirement Friday night, closing out an eight-year career that produced 7,349 rushing yards and 54 touchdowns.
Nick Chubb announced his retirement from the NFL on Friday night, ending an eight-year career defined by punishing running, remarkable resilience through multiple serious knee injuries, and a reputation as one of the most respected players of his generation. The four-time Pro Bowler shared the news in a lengthy, emotional post on Instagram, closing the door on a run that began in Cleveland in 2018 and ended as a free agent following the 2025 season with the Houston Texans.
Chubb was selected by the Browns in the second round of the 2018 NFL Draft out of Georgia, where he had already battled back from a devastating knee injury suffered in college. He wasted no time making an impact, rushing for 996 yards and eight touchdowns as a rookie and becoming just the fourth player in NFL history to top 100 rushing yards on three or fewer carries in a single game. Over the next several seasons, he established himself as one of the league’s premier workhorse backs, posting four consecutive 1,000-yard rushing seasons from 2019 through 2022.
A Career Built on Power and Perseverance
Chubb’s best individual season came in 2022, when he ran for a career-high 1,525 yards and scored 12 rushing touchdowns, earning Second-Team All-Pro honors. He made four Pro Bowls in his career and was widely regarded as one of the toughest runners in football, a downhill style that produced explosive gains but also took a physical toll. A torn ACL in a 2023 game against the Steelers threatened to end his career, but Chubb worked his way back onto the field, embodying the same resilience that carried him through a similar injury during his time at Georgia.
He closes his career with 7,349 rushing yards and 54 rushing touchdowns on 1,462 carries, a 5.0 yards-per-carry average that ranks among the best of his era for a workhorse back. Add in 141 receptions for 1,109 yards and five receiving touchdowns, and Chubb finishes with 8,458 total yards and 59 total touchdowns across 100 regular-season games, all but 15 of them in a Browns uniform.
From Cleveland to Houston, and Now Retirement
After seven seasons as the centerpiece of Cleveland’s rushing attack, Chubb signed with the Houston Texans ahead of the 2025 season. His workload diminished as the year went on, finishing with 506 yards and three touchdowns on 122 carries in 15 games as younger backs like Woody Marks saw an increasing share of the touches. Chubb said in his retirement statement that he wanted to walk away “on a healthy note, along with a winning season,” and he got that final chapter with the Texans before deciding it was time.
In his post, Chubb reflected on his journey from Cedartown, Georgia, through his college career with the Bulldogs and into the NFL, thanking coaches, teammates, and fans while acknowledging the goals he didn’t reach, including a Super Bowl and an NFL rushing title. The Browns organization paid tribute to their longtime running back, and reaction poured in across the league from teammates and opponents who respected both his production and his relentless work ethic.
Chubb leaves the game as a free agent, meaning no team will need to make a corresponding roster move, but his exit still reshapes the running back landscape heading into the 2026 season. Cleveland’s backfield has already turned the page in recent years, while Houston will lean further on its younger options in the backfield. For fans looking ahead to the new season, bettors weighing early DraftKings promo code offers or a FanDuel promo code will see NFL running back markets shift as teams adjust their backfields without him. For a player who spent nearly a decade grinding out yards after contact, Friday’s announcement closes the book on one of the more physically demanding careers of the last decade in NFL running back play.