CLEVELAND — Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb is not much for talking, not about himself or his goals on the football field, but there is one major accomplishment that is very much in reach as the 2019 regular season winds to a close.
Chubb enters Sunday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona as the NFL’s leading rusher, and the offensive linemen want to make sure it stays that way until season’s end.
“That’s a huge accomplishment for Nick,” Browns center JC Tretter said earlier in the week. “It’s a huge accomplishment for us. There’s only rushing title winner a year, so to be part of that line would definitely be special for us.”
Currently, Chubb has turned his 253 rushing attempts into 1,281 yards and seven touchdowns with 53 first downs, nine 20-yard gains and four 40-yard rushes and has committed only two turnovers, both in a loss at New England in late October.
Also, Chubb has proven to be a versatile back, one able to catch the ball out of the backfield, too. Chubb has 32 catches for 256 yards with 12 first downs and four 20-yard plays.
Chubb even rattled off a 57-yard run that set up a touchdown in last Sunday’s 27-19 win over the Cincinnati Bengals at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland.
“He always makes us look really good,” Tretter said. “That’s something he’s been doing since he first got here. We’ve talked about it with the Oakland game last year where some of our blocks aren’t perfect, but he finds a way to make a couple guys miss and make us look really good for it.
“That’s always something that we, as offensive linemen, enjoy where sometimes, we give him runs where he can get through the second level untouched, and sometimes, we don’t, and when he can take those ones we don’t and make us look really good about it, then it’s a positive for us.”
Although the Browns added another talented ball carrier to the backfield in Kareem Hunt after he served an eight-game suspension, Chubb’s numbers have not dropped off, as he has registered three 100-yard games and an average of 95.6 yards per game while splitting touches.
“They’re both such great guys and willing to do whatever it takes for the team where you see the first week Kareem came back as kind of a lead blocker for most it and just embrace that role and it was a great week for us against the Bills,” Tretter said.
“Nick’s the same way where both of them just want to do whatever it takes for us to win and progress through the year, so they’ve both done a really good job of that.”
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In order for the Browns to remain in the postseason race, the offensive line knows getting Chubb going early in Sunday’s game against the Cardinals is of utmost importance.
“If in the next three games, Nick has three really good rushing games, I think those two things kind of go hand in hand,” Tretter said.
“We’ll probably have won those three games. So I think our main focus as an offensive line is to win these next three games, but if we can establish Nick and get him going and have him succeed, I think that’s going to make us win those games.”
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