BEREA, Ohio — Myles Garrett lobbied Browns GM Andrew Berry to keep Nick Chubb when he had reconciliation talks with him in February, and is grappling with his departure to the Texans on Monday.
“Yeah, that was part of my talks with AB a couple months ago, asking about the situation with Nick and how that’s going to work out and how we can get him back here,” Garrett said after Day 1 of Browns minicamp. “I know it means a lot to the fans, but he means a lot to us as well in the locker room.
“So it’s an emotional blow to not having him here, but we’ve got to keep on moving, keep on trucking. We got some very talented backs in that room. Some young hungry guys who have a hell of an example to watch and some shoes to fill. But he’s one of the best to ever do in the brown and orange and we appreciate everything he’s done.”
Garrett hopes that Chubb is successful with the Texans, who signed him to a one-year deal worth $2.5 million, with incentives worth up to $5 million.
“I love Nick,” he said. “I think a lot of the guys who are in this locker room still feel the same way as I do. It crushed us to see him get injured, had to battle through and then it happened again. So we want the very best for him, happy to see him still able to play, still able to do his thing, wanted to see him go back to being the player that he was and have a smile on his face, continue to ball out.”
Garrett won’t put anything past Chubb, who’s defied the odds twice in coming back from two blowouts of his left knee, once at Georgia and once here in 2023.
“I won’t put any kind of parameters, expectations or limits on his future or what he can do as he’s broken through all the ceilings that we’ve set forth for him with the recovery from the injuries that he’s had, how substantial they’ve been and yet he’s come back, excelled and been able to play at a high level. It’s tough enough being on the NFL roster and to come back to being the guy again and tote the rock,” he said. “He’s special and I hope continues to be that.”
He stressed that he’s hoping for the best for Chubb, even though he’s played for an AFC rival now.
“If we play him, I hope it’s to punish him, but if seeing him on TV, just playing on Sundays or Mondays, whenever it is, I’m going to be happy for him because he’s able to play this game,” he said.
**Kevin Stefanski too**
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Stefanski is excited for Chubb’s fresh start.
“I haven’t talked to him yet but reached out to him,” Stefanski said. “You guys know how I feel about him. He’s a huge part of our success here, huge part of this franchise. So, we wish him luck and, it’s something that we’ll obviously stay in touch with him throughout this year.”
**Garrett on Aaron Rodgers**
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Garrett was asked about facing Aaron Rodgers twice a year as a member of the Steelers.
“I think it’s a good opportunity to put him in the graveyard,” Garrett said.
The graveyard is his frontyard Halloween tombstone display of QBs he’s sacked.
**Diontae Johnson makes his Browns debut**
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Stefanski is eager to see how Pro Bowl receiver Diontae Johnson can contribute after he joined the team for minicamp.
“Diontae’s doing a nice job,” Stefanski said. “Obviously getting up to speed with terminology and those types of things, and I think we’ll just continue to work. But it’s good to have him out here.”
**Cedric Tillman and Michael Woods II still idle**
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Receivers Cedric Tillman and Michael Woods II missed some organized team activities last week with unspecified injuries and were idle again on the first day of minicamp. They’ll likely miss the next two days as well in the interest of getting to training camp healthy.
But it means many more reps for the young receivers, especially the rookies. On Tuesday, Gage Larvadain, the undrafted rookie out of South Carolina, caught a long TD from Shedeur Sanders and several other passes from him.
“We’ve asked a lot of them,” Stefanski said. “They’ve done a great job. They work extremely hard. Coach (Chad) O’Shea, Coach (Stephen) Bravo-Brown are working hard with those guys to get them up to speed.”
**Still not ready**
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Three players on the roster were not out at practice: Deshaun Watson (Achilles repair), receiver David Bell (hip surgery), Mike Hall Jr. (knee surgery).
Watson isn’t expected to be cleared to practice until at least sometime in October, but he’s in meetings and the weight room. He’s also thrown to receivers inside the building outside of regular practice time, and watched some red zone drills on Tuesday at the end of practice.
“Deshaun’s, as you guys know, not practicing, but he’s rehabbing, attacking his rehab and being a resource for young players, which I think is a great message about being a great teammate – being available to all your young players, young and old.”
**Stefanski on his toughness mantra**
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Stefanski cautioned that talk is cheap when it comes to the Browns emphasis on toughness this season.
“The easy part is to talk about it,” he said. “That’s the easy part. You can do it. The hard part is making sure that we have players, coaches, we’re putting them through a program that is callousing up our bodies, our minds. So, the work is hard, but the easy part would be to talk about it.”
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