Will the Browns give Nick Chubb more carries in 2023?

Nick Chubb is arguably the best running back in the NFL. The Cleveland Browns struck football gold in the second round of the 2018 NFL Draft, and Chubb has given the team everything they could've hoped for from the running back position.

In five seasons with Cleveland, Chubb has racked up 1,241 carries for 6,485 yards (good for 5.2 YPC over his career), 48 touchdowns and just seven fumbles. 4,880 of those yards have come after contact, which means the bruising back has earned 75% of his career yards after a defender has gotten a hand on him.

He's only fallen short of 1,000 yards in one season, and that was his rookie year in 2018 when Hue Jackson refused to play him early on — and Chubb still put up 996 yards, just four shy of 1,000.

Chubb had a monster season In 2022. His 302 carries were the most ever in his career and the first time he cracked 300 carries in a season. It was also the fourth-most carries in the entire league. He played on 336 offensive snaps, which was the seventh-most at the running back position last season. The numbers show that the Browns utilized Nick Chubb at a high rate compared to the rest of the league.

So why do Browns fans still feel that Chubb is underutilized? For one, Chubb has been scarcely used in the passing game. He only has 125 receptions over his five seasons in the NFL. Two, the situations in which some of his carries have come have been questionable.

That's not exactly a statistic you can track, but Browns fans who watch the games know what I'm talking about. While Chubb is a highly-efficient and effective runner, he's not always used in the most effective ways.

There are times you watch the games and see Chubb on the sideline when it just feels like he should be in the game. And then there are times he gets the hand-off when everyone at home (which means the entire defense, too) knows we should pass the ball.

In short, when Browns fans call for the team to give Chubb more carries, what they really want is for the team to give him the carries in better situations. Chubb doesn't need to be utilized more — his carries need to be utilized more effectively.