The Cleveland Browns are 2-3 with a lot of blame to spread around. With three winnable games that have slipped through their fingertips, the team could be kicking themselves for the blown opportunities when the playoff picture unfolds at the end of the year.
One player who deserves zero blame for this year’s struggles is RB Nick Chubb. Chubb, fresh off a contract extension, has been the key to the Browns offense which, overall, is one of the tops in the league.
With Monday Night Football yet to play, Chubb leads the NFL with 593 yards rushing, 60 more than his closest competitor and almost 200 more than the third-place rusher. The team’s 192.4 yards per game on the ground leads the NFL and has the offense’s total yardage at fourth in the league.
Chubb himself is on an impressive, if unrealistic, pace:
Nick Chubb rushing first five games of the season:
22-141-0
17-87-3
23-113-1
19-118-1
17-134-2
17-game pace: 333-2016-24— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) October 9, 2022
Looking at the last five seasons, Chubb’s attempts (333) would be the second most behind Derrick Henry’s 378 from 2020. Chubb is on pace to come in just short of Henry’s 2,027 yards that season. If Chubb stays on pace, 2,016 yards would give him the sixth-best rushing season in NFL history.
No NFL running back has topped 20 rushing touchdowns since LaDainian Tomlinson’s NFL record of 28 in 2006.
Wth Kareem Hunt and D’Ernest Johnson backing him up, it would be a surprise if Chubb’s workload stays this high for all 17 games of the season. The return of QB Deshaun Watson late in the season may also lighten Cleveland’s lead-back’s workload.
Five games is not a huge sample size but, for now, Chubb is being used a significant amount of times in games and is performing quite well.