What a back we landed.
Nick Chubb. Those 2 words alone are typically enough to strike fear into the hearts of defenses across the league, and keep Defensive coordinators awake at night, trying to come up with any possible way to slow him down.
Throughout the beginning of the NFL season, despite the Browns sitting at 2-3, these coordinators have failed. He is averaging well over 100 yards per game. He’s currently leading the NFL in almost every rushing total. He’s in a split backfield and is #2 in fantasy football RB rankings. League leader in rush TDs. He is #6 in the league in yards per touch, despite him being primarily a runner as he only has 6 receptions on the season. He is #1 in Breakaway runs (runs over 15 yards). 33 evaded tackles, good for 6th in the league. The point of all these stats? Something that we should all already know… Nick Chubb is good. He has been the league’s best back this season.
Let’s take a look at a few of his game logs (simplified). Week 1 against the Carolina Panthers: 22 carries, 144 yards, and 6.4 yards per rush. Week 2 against the New York Jets: 17 carries, 87 yards, 5.1 yards per rush, and 3 touchdowns. Week 3 against the Pittsburgh Steelers: 23 carries, 113 yards, and 1 touchdown. Week 4 against the Atlanta Falcons: 19 carries, 118 yards, and 1 touchdown. Week 5 against the LA Chargers: 17 carries, 134 yards, and 2 touchdowns. Extremely efficient week in and week out.
A lot of this is due to Stefanski’s creative play calling, but most of it is due to how smooth Chubb runs, how fast he hits holes and his overall vision and talent. The Browns are in a good spot with Chubb in the backfield, and Browns fans are not overly worried about our record as we know we have a lot of talent and are just waiting for Deshaun Watsons return in a couple of weeks. Watson throwing the ball to Cooper and Njoku will remove stacked boxes against Chubb unless they want to be beaten over the top. And Nick Chubb staring at his offensive line and realizing there are only four defenders prepared for him to burst through the hole? That man is salivating. I’m not sure there’s been a Browns player I’ve been more thankful to have than Nick Chubb, in my lifetime.
All stats used and provided are courtesy of Playerprofiler.
John Zimmerman