Javonte Williams effectively resurrected his career in 2025, his first season with Dallas. After a promising rookie campaign in Denver in 2021, Williams suffered a knee injury early in Year Two and never regained his mojo; back-to-back underperforming campaigns caused the Broncos to give up on their former second-round pick.
The Cowboys added him on a one-year rental last March and got Williams’s best season yet, watching him notch personal highs in rushing attempts, yards, yards per carry, and touchdowns. Clearly, Williams is poised to enter the season as the Cowboys’ lead running back. Behind him on the depth chart, however, the silver and blue have themselves a whole lot of grey area.
Could a longtime Brown be the answer and pull off a similar return to form wearing Cowboys colors?
In a piece where he plays matchmaker with over a dozen of the NFL’s top remaining free agents, ESPN’s Matt Bowen names four-time Pro Bowler Nick Chubb as an ideal fit in Dallas.
“A veteran grinder at this point of his career,” Bowen writes, “Chubb could provide value as the Cowboys’ No. 2 or No. 3 option behind starter Javonte Williams. Chubb can still secure catches on swings and checkdowns in the passing game, but he should be viewed as an early-down option who can use his power and vision in short-yardage situations. He rushed for 520 yards in Houston last season.”
As was once the case with Williams, Chubb has not been the same since his own knee injury early in the 2023 season. Prior to that, he had ripped off four straight 1,000-yard seasons. His comeback bid with the Browns in 2024 was hampered by a broken foot, and he spent his first year with the Texans in a timeshare with the much-younger Woody Marks.
Chubb, who turned 30 in December, logged 122 carries and 520 yards last season, totals that would have ranked second among Cowboys ballcarriers behind Williams. That’s where Chubb would seem to fit on the depth chart, an immediate improvement over second-year projects Jaydon Blue and Phil Mafah, who contributed very little as rookies.
And although Malik Davis was a pleasant surprise late in the year, Chubb- if fully healthy- would provide battle-tested veteran depth. The rest of the Cowboys’ RB room could sure use that: fullback Hunter Luepke, practice-squadder Israel Abanikanda, and undrafted rookie Dominic Richardson are the only other options at the current time.
When the 2026 season kicks off, Chubb will be about three years removed from his major knee injury. That puts him on a remarkably similar timeline to that of Williams for his 2025 comeback season. If Chubb were to enjoy even a portion of the same success that Williams had with his post-injury trajectory, he could be worth a flyer in Dallas… or at least a camp invite.
The free agent class currently offers several other recognizable names including Najee Harris, Antonio Gibson, Joe Mixon, Kareem Hunt, Austin Ekeler, and Raheem Mostert.
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This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Could RB Nick Chubb make comeback similar to Javonte Williams in ’25?