The Cleveland Browns went into last season boasting one of the best running backs in football in Nick Chubb, but it only took two games for that to come to an unfortunate end.
Chubb suffered a devastating knee injury in Week 2, knocking him out for the remainder of 2023 and putting his 2024 status—and potentially his career—in jeopardy.
The Browns rolled with Jerome Ford as the No. 1 back in Chubb's absence, and while he showed some flashes, he was fairly underwhelming from an efficiency perspective.
To counter the loss of Chubb and to provide some competition for Ford in the backfield, Cleveland signed D'Onta Foreman to a cheap one-year, $1.3 million deal in free agency.
Very few even blinked an eye at the move, especially considering that Foreman was coming off of a rather pedestrian 2023 campaign himself.
However, Bleacher Report's Kristopher Knox thinks the Browns' signing of Foreman is one of the most overlooked additions of the offseason.
Foreman spent last year with the Chicago Bears, rushing for 425 yards and four touchdowns while averaging 3.9 yards per carry in nine games.
On the bright side, the 28-year-old is just two seasons removed from rattling off 914 yards and five scores on the ground while logging 4.5 yards per attempt with the Carolina Panthers.
Foreman has only appeared in 52 games since entering the NFL in 2017. Injuries—including a torn Achilles—have played a major role, but he also wasn't all that productive for the first several years of his professional tenure.
Nevertheless, the University of Texas product has carved out a niche as a supplementary back over the last three seasons and could very well represent a key cog in the Browns' offense in 2024.
Cleveland doesn't know when to expect Chubb to return. The four-time Pro Bowler hasn't ruled himself out for Week 1, but that seems incredibly unrealistic. In fact, there could be a chance that we don't see Chubb at all this coming season.
That makes the addition of Foreman all the more important, particularly when you take into account that the rest of the Browns' running back room isn't overly impressive.
