Cleveland Browns’ Nick Chubb will have a great opportunity to win the NFL rushing title in 2020.
Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb has been the talk of social media recently due to his outrageous workouts during the offseason. Chubb has proven to be a quick, yet powerful on the field, so seeing his workouts shows why he is just so dominant on the field.
In just his second season the NFL, Chubb was only 47 yards away from winning the rushing title in 2019. He showed his dynamic running ability, as he was able to use his strength gain chunks of yardage between the tackles, but also have the speed and acceleration to break away from the second and third levels of the defense.
Chubb managed to rush for 1,494 yards on 298 attempts in 2019, despite Freddie Kitchens and the Browns offense rarely committing to the run. Only 40.39 percent of Cleveland’s offense were rushing plays in 2019, according to TeamRankings.com.
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Despite last year’s league leading rusher, Derrick Henry, seemingly being the No. 1 option in Tennessee’s offense once again, Chubb has an even better chance to win the rushing title in 2020 than he did last season.
With Kevin Stefanski installing his wide zone rushing scheme, Chubb is a perfect fit in the offense. Chubb’s patient running style allows him to wait for holes to open up, and he uses his acceleration and power to blast through the running lane he chooses.
Cleveland also greatly improved their run blocking with the additions of Jack Conklin and Jedrick Wills. Conklin is familiar with the wide zone scheme, as he helped Henry win the rushing title with a similar scheme in Tennessee. Wills also proved to be a powerful blocker who has agile feet to move laterally, which helped him create running lanes during his time playing for the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Chubb’s fit in the scheme, as well as the improved offensive line could be enough to help Chubb win the rushing title in 2020. What is most important, however, is Stefanski commits to the run. During his lone season as the Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator, Stefanski had run play percentage of 48.79 percent, the fourth-highest in the NFL.
Stefanski also relies on the run game to help setup a play-action passing attack, which Kirk Cousins proved to be effective with in 2019. As Dalvin Cook picked apart defenses on the ground, it created openings in the passing game for Cousins. Stefanski will use this same formula in Cleveland, which has a chance to create even more explosive plays with weapons both in the backfield and in the receiving corps.
With Stefanski’s commitment to the run, Chubb will have plenty of opportunities throughout the season to put together big rushing performances. Although Kareem Hunt will also take a significant chunk of carries in 2020, it will allow Chubb to stay fresh for all 16 games. It will also allow Chubb to remain effective for an entire game, helping him take advantage of tired defenses late in games.
Although Henry will once again be right in the competition to be the league’s leading rusher, Chubb has all of the factors working in his favor. Chubb has a chance to be the top playmaker in the Browns offense and could make him the top rusher in the NFL in 2020.