In last week’s classic snow globe game between the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers, the Browns running back Nick Chubb scored two touchdowns in helping his team to a 29-24 upset win against their rival Steelers.
Chubb last played against Pittsburgh in Week 2 of last season, when he was seriously injured with a nasty knee injury. Because of the nature of the injury, there were conversations and questions about whether Chubb would ever play football again. But Chubb did indeed return this season playing in five games so far. His averages per carry are down some from his career 5.1 yards per carry but he’s started to pick up a few more big runs and is starting to get his legs under him.
For his career, Chubb has gained 6,733 yards on 1,311 carries in 82 games. That yardage puts him in the No. 3 spot in Browns running back history only behind Leroy Kelly and Jim Brown. He’s only 542 yards from surpassing Kelly in the rankings. With six games remaining, there’s a chance Chubb could claim that position.
With Chubb becoming a free agent again in the off-season, there has been plenty of speculation on if he’ll be back as a Browns player next season. With his untimely injury a year ago and his extraordinary journey to get back in shape to play again this season, most fans would love to see him return to the team next season and beyond.
(Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)
There are only three other active players in the NFL that have more rushing yards than Chubb. That includes Joe Mixon (7,198), Ezekiel Elliott (9,089) and Derrick Henry (10,827). All these players have had far more games played and carries than Chubb. Henry has 2,251 carries, more than 940 than Chubb. Elliott has 2,123 carries which is 812 more than Chubb and Mixon has 1756 carries, more than 445 carries.
If you were to take Chubb’s current 5.1 YPC average, then he’d surpass all three running backs easily. Compared to Henry, he’d have 11,527 yards now with the same number of carries. With Elliott, Chubb would have 10,874 yards based on the same carries. And finally, with Mixon he’d be at 9,003 yards with the same number of carries.
All of this is a “what if” scenario but it points to how impressive and efficient Chubb has been in his seven NFL seasons.
We’ll have to see how the remainder of the season pans out for the Browns and Chubb, but it would certainly be in the team’s best interest to bring Chubb back to the team. Chubb represents the best of the organization and hopefully, that isn’t lost on them.
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