Cleveland Browns running backs have mind-blowing numbers

A deeper look at the numbers which prove just how good the talent is at the running back for the Cleveland Browns in 2019

The Cleveland Browns have great talent at the running back position, as evidenced by the numbers for starter Nick Chubb, starter 1-A Kareem Hunt, and change of pace backs Duke Johnson and Dontrell Hilliard. The passing game is getting love because of Baker Mayfield and new hire Odell Beckham, Jr. but the ground game is going to have to get it done also.

The top 32 NFL running backs in terms of total yards from scrimmage (YFS) are listed below, with Johnson, Hyde and Hilliard also added since they are of interest to fans of last year’s Browns. The players are then re-ordered according to total yards per snap (TYPS).

The stats are taken from Pro Football Reference, with unofficial per-snap stats added by yours truly. Although TYPS is rarely used in the media, it is a good measure of the contribution the player makes when he is on the field. There are a number of inferences that can be drawn from the numbers that might blow your mind. A full explanation appears at the end of this article.

Selected 2018 Running Back Stats*

The most mind-blowing stat is that the current Browns roster (Chubb, Johnson, Hilliard, Charles and Hunt for game nine and beyond) combined for a mind-blowing 3,082 yards from scrimmage last year.  Of course, an argument could be made that Chubb and Hunt won’t both be able to get the same number of snaps, but recall that both players missed a lot of time in 2019 — Hunt missed five games due to a suspension, whereas Chubb missed a large number of snaps due to the coaches not liking him enough early on in the season.

Duke Johnson was also very good last year, although as a safety valve out of the backfield he was not used as often as in 2017 because Mayfield was hitting the wide receivers more often than Kizer did. But when they threw the ball to Johnson, he usually caught it, and he gained 5.0 yards per carry.

The Browns also have under-the-radar Dontrell Hilliard, who started to get a few of the Duke’s snaps at the end of the year. The sample size is small, but he caught 9-of-10 balls for 105 yards.  Overall the Browns were ranked a so-so 14th in the NFL  in terms of rushing yards last year. They have an excellent chance to move up in 2019.

Speaking of mind-blowing stats, how did the Browns coaching staff come up with the brilliant idea to limit Nick Chubb to three touches per game last year? We don’t know whether that was the decision of former head coach Hue Jackson or offensive coordinator Todd Haley. This isn’t a knock on the former starting halfback Carlos Hyde, who is a quality player, but come on, man!

Well by the end of the year, Chubb just missed a 1,000-yard rushing season, Hyde was in Jacksonville, Jackson was weaving his magic for the Bengals (who lost out), and Haley was last seen on a bass boat.

So who’s going to compete with the Browns to be a top rushing team in 2019? If you buy the narrative that drafting Saquon Barkley makes the New York Giants one of the top rushing teams in the NFL, your mind might be blown to learn that the Giants were not first or second in the NFL in rush yards last year. Try 24th.  How can this be, especially after all the gushing about how brilliant the Giants’ running back was?

Barkley was one of the most durable (855 total offensive snaps) backs in the NFL, which allowed him to pile up impressive season totals. However, the Giants did not provide much help for Barkley, and one back is not enough to lead the NFL in team rushing yards. By the way, on a per-snap basis, Barkley was only 17th highest in the NFL in generating offensive yards, behind both Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt.

There are several other running backs who performed at a high-level last year, with Chubb’s Georgia Bulldog teammate, Sony Michel, at the top of the list. Barkley got a lot of positive attention, deservedly so, but it is as much about his durability as anything else.

What about the narrative that the Steelers didn’t miss Le’Veon Bell because James Conner was able to step in and replace him? Well, the Steelers were 31st out of 32 teams in rushing yards. Like the Giants, they have a really good halfback, but they did not have other alternatives.  Had the Steelers managed to hang onto Bell and Conner both, they might well have been a top five rushing team.

I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t have guessed that the teams atop the NFL in rushing yards last year were the Seattle Seahawks and Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens are a particular concern because they are in the Browns’ division. How did the Ravens finish second in the NFL in team rushing yards when their best running back (Gus Edwards) gained only 718 yards on the ground?

The answer to that has a lot to do with Lamar Jackson, who is not impressive through the air, but who is the premier running quarterback in the NFL. With Jackson at the controls, passing yardage dropped off, but everybody on the team including the waterboy started getting rushing yards, and they went 6-1 down the stretch.

The Seahawks, like the Browns and Ravens, are at least three deep at halfback with Chris Carson putting up Chubb-like stats per snap, with Mike Davis (728 YFS, 1.86 TYPS) and Rashaad Penny (494 YFS, 2.76 TYPS).

The no-name Seahawks and Ravens, teams with multiple good backs, wound up on the leaderboards, while teams like the Giants and Steelers — teams with one monster back but little else — were toward the bottom of the NFL. It also bears mention that although the cliché is that the NFL is a passing league, the teams with strong running games made the playoffs. The Giants and Steelers were not among them.

Perhaps that explains why the Browns have apparently elected to keep Duke Johnson on the team despite the fact that he has a very large contract and is not expected to start. Nick Chubb is a phenomenal runner, but without a strong second and third string option, the team is not likely to get good production overall from the running game.

As it is, with Duke Johnson still getting his snaps and then having Kareem Hunt return for the second half of the season (and perhaps a surprise or two from someone like Dontrell Hilliard), the Browns stand to improve upon their team performance in 2019. On paper, they look like a top-five rushing team.

*Key to running back stats table: The first column is the player’s rank by Yards From Scrimmage (YFS), the sum of rushing yards and receiving yards.  The second column is the rank according to Total Yards from scrimmage Per Snap (TYPS) in column 12.

Column five is the total offensive snaps, followed by the traditional stats of rushing yards and rush yards per carry. Column eight is the total receiving yards for the season.  Column nine lists receiving yards per target in favor of the more traditional receiving yards per reception on the grounds that the stat is more informative if it includes incomplete passes (why use a stat that eliminates drops?).

Receiving yards per snap (column 10) is an even more informative stat in that it factors in the team’s willingness to use the player, rather than ignoring the plays he does not get to touch the pigskins.  That brings us to total yards from scrimmage (rush yards plus receiving yards or YFS) in column 11, and total yards per snap in column 12 (TYPS).