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There was little offense early through the Cleveland Browns–Pittsburgh Steelers Week 2 Monday Evening soccer matchup. The 2 groups performed scorching potato, turning the ball over backwards and forwards, and the tip of the primary quarter needed to be performed over once more after replay overview.
Nevertheless, there was one offensive participant who was reliable from the opening whistle, Nick Chubb.
Among the best working backs within the league had run for 106 yards through the Browns’ Week 1 victory in opposition to the Cincinnati Bengals, and was able to go for much more in Week 2. The Browns rode Chubb early and sometimes, with him accumulating 59 yards on 9 carries in opposition to the Steelers. On his tenth carry, he ran for what is going to probably be the ultimate 5 yards of his 2023 season.
Minkah Fitzpatrick drilled Chubb straight within the knee, hurting himself within the course of. For a second, it appeared that Chubb could be alright. He regarded like he was merely dinged when considered one of his teammates tried to assist him up off of the bottom, however Chubb would pull his hand away, unbuckle his chinstrap and roll over in ache. As Joe Buck knowledgeable the tv viewers that the replay of what occurred wouldn’t be proven, a collective groan from the 68,000-plus confirmed that Chubb’s knee getting mangled was not match for air. One dangerous hit and now the 2023 season is probably going over for one of the sturdy working backs within the NFL, after solely 170 yards and simply over 5 quarters.
Chubb signed a three-year contract extension with the Browns in 2021. On the time he was league chief in yards per carry since 2018 — amongst working backs who carried the ball no less than 150 instances — with a mean of 5.23. That extension assured him $20 million and made him the fifth-highest paid working again within the league at about $12 million per 12 months.
His backup, Jerome Ford, took over major working again duties for the remainder of the sport and spelled out yard by yard simply why working backs don’t get compensated according to the labor required of them through the season. The second-year, fifth-round draft decide rushed for 106 yards on 6.6 yards per carry. He additionally caught three passes for 25 yards and a landing.
Ford entered the sport and instantly was an affect participant. Ford’s base wage for 2023 — $870,000.
Lengthy-term offers for working backs could also be a non-starter, however the NFLPA has to determine a manner for these gamers to obtain some sort of hazard pay to compensate them for the pounding they take. It begins of their hometowns when they’re the most effective participant on a group and tote the rock all sport. Then they get to school and coaches experience them there as effectively. Years of a working again’s prime unpaid for, after which they get to the NFL. They signal a slotted deal, and if they’re nice, the group will get the reward of the choice to franchise tag working backs till their prime is probably going full.
Chubb is 27, and when his contract expires in 2024 he will likely be 30. After struggling a significant knee harm — a second one in the identical knee, the primary occurred in school — it’s arduous to see the Browns providing him a multi-year one, particularly since they’re on the hook for each greenback of Deshaun Watson’s deal.
Now the Browns will start to make use of up a gifted fifth-round draft decide. If Ford retains producing they are going to hold giving him the ball and he won’t make $1 million in a season till 2026. Then they’ve the choice to hit him with that double franchise tag which might take him to 29. He probably gained’t lead the NFL in yards per carry, and the Browns are going to be extra gun shy in relation to signing Ford to a brand new deal after coping with Watson and this Chubb harm.
There isn’t a extra hazardous place within the NFL than working again. Not solely are their careers the shortest, however as a place group, they make lower than some other participant by which collisions are a part of their job description.
In different harmful traces of labor on this nation persons are compensated additional for the bodily punishment they endure on the clock. Operating backs definitely deserve some hazard pay to compensate for the contract {dollars} and size that they don’t obtain compared to their friends. They’re used as crash-test dummies. One among them breaks, after which one other one, often newer, is distributed proper again into the automobile for one more crash.
That is value some hazard pay.
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