The Cleveland Browns have signed running back Kareem Hunt to a two-year extension worth $13.25 million, including $8.5 million guaranteed, according to ESPN and NFL Network.
Hunt ran for 179 yards, caught 37 passes for 285 yards and scored three touchdowns in 2019 — his first season in Cleveland as Nick Chubb's backup. Hunt was limited to eight games in 2019 after being suspended for violating the NFL's personal conduct policy.
In March, Hunt, signed a second-round tender ($3.26 million) to stay in Cleveland for 2020. Now, the 25-year-old is under contract with the Browns through the 2022 campaign. His total of $16.5 million over the next three years will make the second-stringer the 12th-highest-paid RB in the league.
Hunt took to Instagram to announce the news of his extension:
“Cleveland has always been home to me, and putting on the Orange & Brown has been THE dream growing up,” the Ohio-native wrote in an Instagram post. “Being able to make it official, and play my heart out for the city I love for the next few years is a blessing.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CE4iPOOMeNE/
On Jan. 21, Hunt was pulled over by police, who found a small amount of marijuana in the back seat of the car he was driving. Hunt was cited for speeding. After the incident, Browns GM Andrew Berry implied that Hunt remained in the franchise's long-term plans, saying he was “looking forward to him meshing with our culture going forward.”
In November 2018, Hunt — as one of the most promising halfbacks in football who rushed for 1,327 yards as a rookie in 2017 — was released by the Kansas City Chiefs after video from the previous February showing him kicking a woman was made public. That incident, plus his involvement in a physical scuffle in June 2018, resulted in an eight-game suspension from the NFL — announced one month after Cleveland signed him in February 2019.
Chubb, 24, will enter the final year of his rookie deal in 2021 and will probably look for a lucrative extension before next season. The relatively modest size of Hunt's deal may provide Cleveland with enough cap flexibility to pay Chubb, depending on his performance in 2020. Chubb made the Pro Bowl in 2019 after rushing for 1,494 yards on 298 carries.
Whether Hunt's extension affects the snap distribution in the backfield will be one of the storylines to watch in Cleveland this season.
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