At 8-3, the Browns are having their best season since being reborn in 1999 and their two-headed rushing attack is a big reason why.
Cleveland leads the league with 1,775 yards on the ground, averaging 161.4 yards per game. That’s just above the Titans — the Browns’ Week 13 opponent — who are getting 158.2 yards a game behind the NFL’s rushing leader, Derrick Henry.
The Browns’ approach is different because their two leading backs, Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, are both closing in on 1,000 yards rushing. Though Chubb missed four games with a sprained MCL, he’s registered 719 yards rushing — tied for sixth among the league leaders. Hunt has 706, which ranks ninth.
That means Chubb needs just 281 yards and Hunt 294 to reach that magic number of 1,000 with five games left. Based on their current pace, both players should hit it.
“That’s going to happen,” Browns running backs coach Stump Mitchell said Friday, via Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com. “I knew that was going to happen before the season started. That was our goal. So that’s going to happen. It’s just a matter what game it’s going to happen.”
If it does, the Browns will become the eighth team to have a pair of 1,000-yard rushers on the same team. The Ravens did it last year with quarterback Lamar Jackson and running back Mark Ingram. The last pair of running backs to accomplish the feat were Carolina’s Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams in 2009.
Chubb and Hunt would also become the second running backs duo in Browns history to reach over 1,000 yards in the same season, joining Kevin Mack and Earnest Byner in 1985.
With the two running backs leading the way, Cleveland is now in strong position to reach the postseason for the first time since 2002.
