Over the last few seasons, the Cleveland Browns offense has been based around their dynamic rushing attack. The team ranked in the top five over each of the last three seasons in rushing yards per game. That trend looked to continue this season behind the play of star running back Nick Chubb, who was showing no signs of slowing down at the age of 27.
That all changed Monday night during the Browns game against the Steelers, as Chubb suffered a season-ending knee injury.
This led to the Browns bringing in his former partner in the backfield Kareem Hunt for a workout on Tuesday and signing him the following day. Hunt was a member of the Browns for the previous four seasons, before hitting free agency this offseason, and remaining unsigned until now. While losing Chubb is a huge blow to the team’s potential this season, Hunt still has his eye on the NFL’s ultimate prize. He touched on this in an interview provided by the team.
“It’s quite exciting. I’m from Cleveland, born and raised like I always say,” Hunt pointed out. “I still want to bring a championship here and help contribute. That was my biggest goal for the last four years, to do everything I can to bring one to the hometown. It feels good, they have a great team. I love the defense. I love the offense that we have, and I’m excited to see us put it all together.”
Hunt should serve to bolster the Browns offense that is so based around the run. Jerome Ford saw a lot of the work on Monday night after Chubb went down, and there could also be some more work in store for Pierre Strong, who the Browns traded for from the New England Patriots this offseason. While Hunt isn’t quite the guy he once was, he is by far the most proven option in the Cleveland backfield.
The Browns stand at 1-1 after two weeks, and while they were listed by many as a darkhorse Super Bowl contender, both the injury to Chubb and the poor play from Deshaun Watson have cooled a lot of their expectations. The signing of Hunt won’t fix everything right away, but it at least gives the team another weapon to help Watson as he looks to return to his pre-suspension form.
The Browns first signed Hunt in 2019, and he was a key part of the backfield since then He had a great year behind Chubb in 2020, racking up over 800 rushing yards. He also had a strong start to 2021, posting 4.9 yards per carry before going down with an injury halfway through the season. Hunt slowly saw his touch count decrease last season, posting under 500 yards on a career-low 3.8 yards per carry.
