CLEVELAND, Ohio — In an abysmal 3-11 season, the Browns took a few more blows on Sunday.

Yes, they fell 21-7 to the reigning two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. But the bigger disappointment was running back Nick Chubb breaking his left foot in the third quarter.

For the second straight year, Chubb, the heart and soul of the Browns, will have his season end prematurely due to injury.

Last year, of course, it was the devastating knee injury he suffered in Pittsburgh in Week 2. He underwent two separate procedures to reconstruct the knee, and was finally able to return to game action after missing the first six games of the 2024 season.

“That’s probably one of the hardest-working dudes I’ve ever seen,” said fellow running back Pierre Strong Jr. “So for him to continuously battle through adversity, man, it’s just — when’s he going to catch a break? Because I want to see him at the top.”

It was a similar scene last September, when Chubb suffered his knee injury, with players even getting visibly emotional.

So what is it about Chubb that inspires this kind of response from his teammates?

“He’s one of the best running backs to play this game, he works harder than anybody and his personality is never ‘look at me’ or anything,” left guard Joel Bitonio said. “It’s always for the team. I know people say, ‘Oh, I’d rather win. I’d rather do this.’ Nick Chubb would rather win than have any stats or any accolades, and that’s truly from the heart of hearts. He’s a good person. It’s just a special person.”

“Nick doesn’t say a lot to the media, but Nick is very vocal in our locker room,” he said. “He’s like the heart and soul of our team. He’s a guy that everybody, it’s hard to not root for him. I actually heard about the injury in the interview just a couple minutes ago. So I didn’t even know. So that was really heartbreaking to hear because that guy, he works so hard. He embodies what it means to be like an NFL football player and a good teammate.

“So I’m really, really heartbroken for him. I hope that it’s a speedy recovery because the guy deserves everything. He deserves a ring, he deserves all the accolades that he can possibly get. He does everything the right way and he’s a phenomenal player and person.”

Last year after Chubb was injured, cornerback Greg Newsome II was vocal about players dedicating the season to the running back.

It was a much different rallying cry then. That early in the year, Cleveland still had a ton of games on their schedule, and went on to become a playoff team.

After falling to the Chiefs on Sunday, the Browns are now 3-11. They were officially mathematically eliminated from the postseason last week after a 27-14 loss in Pittsburgh.

With only three more games left on the slate though, Cleveland is turning this latest Chubb injury into part of its “why” going forward.

“Just go out there and play as hard as you can,” safety Juan Thornhill said. “Now we got a reason to really play with Nick going down. Play for Nick. You know Nick wants to be out there, so we can just go out there and compete each and every week for him.”

Chubb rushed nine times for 41 yards on Sunday prior to his injury.

But he also had a pass go off his hands and into the hands of Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton for an interception on the first play of the second half. The Chiefs turned that into a rushing TD from Xavier Worthy to take a 21-0 lead. Chubb also lost a fumble on the very next series.

Post-return from the knee injury, the strategy has been slow and steady with Chubb, and he’s not ripped off his usual long runs.

In 2024 he’s averaged a career-low 3.3 yards per carry (he’s never averaged fewer than 5 yards per carry in any individual season) and ends the year with 332 rushing yards on 102 carries with three touchdowns.

His best game was Cleveland’s last win — the 24-19 victory over Pittsburgh in Week 12, in which he had 59 rushing yards on 20 carries, as well as two touchdowns.

In the loss to the Steelers last week, he managed to rip off his longest run of the year, a 19-yarder.

“I thought he was starting to flash something, too,” Bitonio said. “We were blocking a little bit better for him, and he was starting to make some plays for us. I was hoping these last few games we’d get him back on track a little bit, but it’s tough, but it’s tough.”

This latest injury also comes at a crucial time for Chubb when it comes to the business aspect of the game.

He’s playing on the final year of a restructured deal currently, and is scheduled to become a free agent when the new league year begins in March.

“Yeah, I think if Nick Chubb wants to be a Brown, he’ll be a Brown next year,” Bitonio continued. “That’s all I got for that. I think he’s earned that, and they’ll figure something out.”

There’s still time to figure out what the future holds.

But for now, on the surface level, it’s a safe assumption that the price may wind up being feasible to keep Chubb around in some capacity.

Especially when you consider that his value goes beyond what he does between the lines.

“When you think about Cleveland Browns, you think about Jim Brown and Nick Chubb,” Strong said. “He’s in that conversation where when you think of this team, this organization, he comes to mind. So he’s the organization.”