The Cleveland Browns’ offense has revolved around running back Nick Chubb since about midway through his rookie year in 2018. He has established himself as arguably the top player at his position in the league, amassing 6,341 rushing yards, 990 receiving yards, and 52 total touchdowns.
And he’s not particularly concerned about his place in the pecking order changing with the Browns heading into their first full season with Deshaun Watson, their $230-million quarterback. And Cleveland certainly shouldn’t give him any reason to worry.
Asked about the fact that he scored 12 rushing touchdowns in the 11 games before Watson’s return last year and zero after he took the field, the sixth-year veteran said that he doesn’t believe there’s anything to read into that.
“You can’t really look at the numbers”, he told Chris Easterling of the Akron Beacon Journal. “Twelve is the most I’ve ever had since I’ve been here. I don’t think it had much to do with it. I think we did have to figure some things out, get the kinks out on offense and I don’t think I’m hindered by Deshaun at all”.
What did happen when Watson returned? Well, for one thing, the Browns only scored more than 14 points twice in six games. Their overall yardage production dropped, but not drastically. But the rushing yardage, minus one game, did not diminish.
Chubb’s rushing workload dropped slightly, by about one carry per game. His yards per attempt dropped from 5.2 to 4.8, but the sample size is really too small to say anything particularly meaningful about Watson’s impact on the running game and their All-Pro’s usage.
The offense was somewhat worse overall during that time, a natural result of changing horses midstream, particularly with one that hasn’t had the chance to gallop in a while. Watson was rusty, plain and simple, and everybody had to get used to playing with him.
Everybody in the system should be better for it this year. And it’s not like the Houston Texans weren’t a running team while he was there—at least while they weren’t constantly playing from behind, as in his last year in the offense. They ranked in the top 10 in rushing twice and the top 15 three times in four years.
The only thing that should change is the Browns’ reliance on Chubb as the source of their offense because of the shaky play they have had from the quarterback position pretty much since the franchise returned to the NFL in 1999.
In that respect, I have to side with Chubb. You can’t really look at the numbers when Watson was on the field last year and compare it against what they did before that to determine what’s going to happen in 2023. This is a fresh start, a new year, and they’re going to figure out what the balances are. There’s no reason he shouldn’t continue to be a dominant and prolific back no matter who is under center.
