Cleveland Browns 2018 Draft Profile: Georgia running back Nick Chubb

If the Cleveland Browns decide against going with Penn State’s Saquon Barkley early, they could look at UGA running back Nick Chubb

The biggest name in running backs for the 2018 draft is most certainly Penn State’s Saquon Barkley, but Cleveland Browns fans might also want to pay attention to Georgia’s Nick Chubb, who’s proven to be almost as powerful a player.

At least when it comes to Chubb’s old school ‘explosion number’ (EN).

That’s the unique stat created by infamous pro football analyst and author of Take Your Eye Off the Ball 2.0 Pat Kirwan, who uses a player’s EN to determine how explosive a player is. Kirwan says the EN indicates whether a player will be able to push and slide and get into position to make plays. It’s a far more specific (and less sponsored) precursor to the SPARQ (Speed, Power, Agility, Reaction and Quickness) scoring system, which is designed to measure sport-specific athleticism.

The EN focuses more on a player’s explosive power numbers and its formula is simple.

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EN = Bench Press + Vertical Leap + Standing Broad Jump

According to Kirwan, anything above a 70 is considered NFL worthy and above a 75 is eye-popping. And when you plug in both player’s 2018 NFL combine numbers, Chubb’s EN is nearly as impressive as Barkley’s.

Chubb’s EN: 29 + 38.5 + 10.66 = 78.2

Barkley didn’t do the standing broad jump at the combine, but it’s safe to say that with his athleticism he could easily jump at least 10 feet.

Barkley’s EN: 29 + 41 + 10.? = 80.?

Both of their numbers indicate eye-popping explosive potential. To put those stats into a Browns’ perspective, compare them to Duke Johnson’s 2015 combine numbers:

Johnson’s EN: 18 + 35 + 10.08 = 63.08

Or Carlos Hyde’s 2014 Combine Numbers.

Hyde’s EN: 19 + 34.5 + 9.5 = 63

Chubb’s eye-popping EN of 78.2 is especially important given his 2015 season ending knee injury. In the opening play (‘a pitch left out of the I formation’) against heated rivals Tennessee, Chubb sustained what Chase Goodbread of NFL.com called:

"“a gruesome knee dislocation with three ligament tears.” — Chase Goodbread of NFL.com"

And ever since Chubb’s return to Georgia’s backfield a year later in 2016 doubters have been questioning whether or not his knee will continue to hold up.

Chubb’s 78.2 Explosion Number may be proof that it will.

And if that stat isn’t enough to impress, watch Chubb’s Instagram video on NFL.com where he proves to the world that his knee is solid with a 600 lb squat press.

Need further proof?

Watch him move piles of tacklers for an extra three yards at the end of almost every run.

Against Auburn in 2017, Chubb is one of those ‘Jason’ runners who you think you’ve killed off with a tackle but suddenly ‘he’s back’ on his feet and doing even more damage for two or three or more extra yards.

His ability to move his body laterally on the fly as he somehow still runs forward must be terribly off-putting to those Auburn linebackers. Just when they think they know which way he’s breaking he suddenly cuts the other way on a dime and he’s gone.

And unlike Barkley (at times), Chubb is not afraid to hit the hole.

Watch him against Samford last season.

Instead of predictably skirting to the outside, Chubb hits the intended hole hard every time. This eventually wears out their defense because it’s taking four guys to muscle him down every time, and periodically he even twists out of it and breaks for the sideline.

But will that kind of strategy work against stronger defenders in the pros?

Chubb’s 4.52 40-yard dash is a few hairs slower than Barkley’s 4.40, but watch him on his first touchdown run in that same Samford game. Chubb breaks away from the pack after it looks like the hole completely piles up and closes down.

He whips left towards the sideline and, showing his impressive lateral speed, outruns two lateral moving defensive players. Then Chubb burns forward for twenty five yards untouched.

Nobody can seem to catch this guy or tackle him on their own.

Besides his well-repaired knee, the biggest question mark about Chubb is whether or not he can catch the ball. His freshman year in 2014 he caught 18 balls, but in his Junior and Senior years Chubb only caught five and four respectively. He seems capable of getting open on simple block and release outlet passes, but for some reason Georgia saw him as more of a runner than a dual threat.

And Chubb is indeed that – a powerful, speedy running back who hits the holes hard, makes defenders pay and scores touch downs, fifteen of them his senior year alone.

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The Browns could definitely use a Saquon Barkley in their 2018 backfield, but in the event he’s not available, a similarly explosive Nick Chubb could be a completely solid alternative.

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