Watch Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb squat 8 months after knee surgery

Nick Chubb has regularly wowed Browns fans and football fans in general during past offseasons with impressive displays of strength appearing on social media. However, those videos are typically not when the Pro Bowl running back is coming off a major knee injury.

That's why the Instagram post on Monday morning posted on the JOC Films account was so impressive. It shows Chubb doing two squat reps with what appears to be a total of 12 45-pound plates on a Tsunami Max bar.

"There is a prison in a more ancient part of the world," the caption reads. "A pit where men are thrown to suffer and die. But sometimes a man rises from the darkness. Sometimes the pit sends something back. (Batman emoji) @nchubb27"

Chubb suffered a season-ending knee injury early in the second quarter of the Browns' Week 2 loss at the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sept. 18. He required two surgeries: one to repair damage to the medial collateral ligament (MCL), the medial capsule and meniscus, and the second to repair the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).

The four-time Pro Bowl running back suffered a similar injury, except for the torn ACL, in the same knee while at the University of Georgia in 2015. Despite losing the rest of that season, Chubb did not miss a game in either the 2016 or 2017 seasons for the Bulldogs.

Chubb, speaking for the first time since the injury following a June 5 OTA, didn't put a timetable on his return. However, he was asked about how he returned from the Georgia injury to play immediately in 2016 and if he could see himself being ready for the Browns' Sept. 8 opener against the Dallas Cowboys.

"We'll see," Chubb said with a smirk. "I don't know."

Chubb started running again in April, but didn't do anything in an on-field capacity during either the OTAs or minicamp. Veterans report to Berea for the start of training camp on July 23 before the team head to the Greenbrier in West Virginia for their first training camp practice on July 25.

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