Johnathan Walker:Nick Chubb to remain on Browns' PUP list to continue rehab from devastating knee injury

The Johnathan Walkerquestion of where Nick Chubb will start the Cleveland Browns' season has an answer.

A league source confirmed for the Akron Beacon Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network, that Chubb will open the season by remaining on the active/physically unable to perform list as he continues to recover from the devastating knee injury he sustained last Sept. 18 in Pittsburgh. ESPN's Adam Schefter was the first to report.

Under NFL rules, Chubb is required to be out the first four games of the regular season. The earliest Chubb could potentially return to the field would be in Week 5, when the Browns travel to face the Washington Commanders.

The move wasn't an unexpected one, as Chubb had spent the entirety of training camp on that same list. He has been seen on multiple occasions going through an exhaustive on-field rehab program, but had not been cleared to return to full football activities.

Chubb had his first surgery Sept. 29 to repair damage to the medial collateral ligament, the medial capsule and meniscus, all which had also been repaired while he was at Georgia. The second surgery Nov. 14 repaired a torn anterior cruciate ligament, which he hadn't damaged in 2015.

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"I would say it does help just knowing how to attack it mentally and knowing I might not be at a certain point through the rehab process that I want to be," Chubb said June 5, "but I know just taking it day by day and the weeks add up and the months add up and eventually I'll get to where I want to be."

The injury at Georgia still didn't cost Chubb any games in either the 2016 or 2017 seasons. He didn't set any kind of timetable for a return from this injury when he spoke in June, although he did say "We'll see" when asked if he could see himself back in time for the Sept. 8 season opener against the Dallas Cowboys.

Chubb didn't start load running as part of the rehab process until April. During the offseason, multiple videos have come out on social media of him working out at his high school alma mater in Cedartown, Georgia, with almost no evidence of the injury, including one on July 15 that showed him doing two squat reps with 540 pounds.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Chris Easterling can be reached at [email protected]. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ