The Browns were the subject of a lot of optimism at this time last year, but the 2019 season didn’t work out as hoped in Cleveland.
They lost by 30 in their opener and then went on to lost five of their next seven games on their way to a 6-10 record that led to head coach Freddie Kitchens being fired after one year on the job. There were plenty of suggestions that the team’s willingness to buy into the hype was a result of the way Kitchens handled the team and recent comments from running back Nick Chubb does little to argue otherwise.
Chubb was on The Jim Rome Show this week and said that the team thought it would skate by on talent without putting in hard work.
“I said it before, I think we thought we were a lot better than we were,” Chubb said. “We thought it was going to just happen for us, we didn’t actually put the work in. We got this guy, and this guy, you know we’re straight, so we don’t need to actually work, it’s going to happen for us. . . . Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work. I think that’s exactly what it was with us. We had all the talent in the world, but didn’t put the work into it.”
Chubb said he believes the new coaching staff and seeing “the results of not working” will put the Browns on a better path when they are able to get back together to wipe the “bad taste” of last year out of their mouths.