Despite expressing satisfaction with the group’s effort minus Chubb last season, Berry’s actions tell the truth. And when combined with Chubb’s adjusted contract, Browns fans found themselves with legitimate reason to believe they might never see the same Chubb again.
That would be jumping to conclusions, though. It’s always a quality front office’s goal to establish competitive depth. The Browns certainly haven’t rested on their laurels this time around.
“Depth is important at every position, we were really pleased with that room last year,” Berry said. “I thought Jerome and Pierre in particular, you know, did an incredible job filling in last year, and then obviously we had Kareem (Hunt) in those high leverage and short yardage moments. But Jerome and Pierre, they got obviously a lot of time and a lot of reps last year and feel very good about their skillset. We’ve added a couple of guys to that room with differing skill sets that can complement those guys, but we think we’re in a pretty strong spot.”
If Chubb can return at some point in the first half of the season and regain the form that saw him rank among the NFL’s elite at the position over the last five years, they’ll undoubtedly be strong at the position. That’s uncertain, though, until Chubb suits up — and even as Berry said Chubb is “going at a good pace” in his rehab, it’s clear he still has a ways to go before he reaches that point.
When that happens, though, make sure you’re sitting down.
“So, our VP of football administration, Chris Cooper … after we got the deal done with Nick, he was like, ‘I’ll be honest, one of the coolest moments that I’m probably looking forward to the most, and may be at the top, is the next time that Nick Chubb runs out of that tunnel right before a game at Cleveland Brown Stadium,'” Berry said. “And I think Chris’s sentiments probably speak for a lot of people in this room and a lot of people in the fan base.”