Four-time Pro Bowl running back Nick Chubb announced his retirement this week.
Chubb, who spent the first seven seasons of his career with the Cleveland Browns before playing what is now his final season with the Houston Texans last year, had his career cut short by injuries.
Sadly, Shannon Sharpe, Joe Johnson, and Chad Ochocinco know this is a common occurrence, but that doesn’t make it any easier.
Shannon Sharpe Calls Nick Chubb’s Retirement a ‘Harsh Reality’
Despite his early retirement, Chubb had an excellent career. The four-time Pro Bowler finished with 7,349 yards and 54 touchdowns on 1,462 carries (5.0 yards per carry) and added another 141 receptions, 1,109 yards, and 5 touchdowns.
Chubb rushed for over 1,000 yards in four straight seasons from 2019 to 2022, including a career-high 1,525 yards in the 2022 season.
After playing in just two games in 2023 and eight in 2024, Chubb appeared in 15 games for the Texans last year, his first season out of Cleveland. He had 506 yards on 122 carries, giving him a better ending to his career than he would have had after his final two disappointing seasons in Cleveland.
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During his four-season run from 2019 to 2023, Chubb finished as a top-8 running back in the league on PFN’s RB Impact Metric. In 2021 and 2022, he was ranked as the second-best running back in the league with impact scores of 83.9 and 87.5, respectively.
“He had a nice career,” Sharpe said. “Could it have been better without the injuries? Yes, absolutely. But this was this this was the hand that he was dealt… It’s like when I (say to God) ‘I want to play in the NFL’ and God says, ‘I’m going to allow you to play in the NFL.’ He didn’t say he gonna allow you to play (for) 15 years. He didn’t say he gonna allow you to play injury-free.
Sharpe believes fans are misled by watching the lengthy careers of Hall of Fame quarterbacks like Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and Drew Brees, even though the average time in the league is just three years.
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“I think sometimes people get that confused,” Sharpe explained. “That’s why the NFL career, as long as you get a guy like Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and Drew Brees that play 18, 19, 20 years, you get most people play for a year or two, and they are done.”
“Three years, the average career for an NFL player. Three, that’s it.”
Sharpe and his co-hosts agreed that that is just the way the league goes.
“It’s the harsh reality,” Sharpe said. “Everybody who goes to law school ain’t gonna pass the bar. Everybody going to med school ain’t going to get a medical license. This notion that just because you play or you go try for the league, that doesn’t guarantee it. It doesn’t guarantee that you’re going to play in the league.”
Unfortunately, the NFL can be a brutal league, and getting eight seasons, including four at a very high level, is yet another accomplishment Chubb can be proud of as he enjoys his retirement.
