Should the Browns think about bringing in a running back?
The Cleveland Browns offense seems to be going through an identity crisis four games into the season, especially in light of Nick Chubb’s season-ending knee injury in Week Two.
With Chubb out of the picture, Jerome Ford has taken on the majority of the team’s carries, with unimpressive results save for a 16-carry, 106-yard outing against Pittsburgh that was aided by a career-long, 69-yard run.
Ford has received 44 handoffs since that time for a meager 44 yards.
That equals an average of 2.3 yards per carry.
Nobody should have anticipated that a player would join the team off the street and make an immediate impact, but the team’s “break glass in case of emergency” plan to bring back Kareem Hunt in an effort to strengthen the running back room hasn’t been successful either.
Context is important in this situation, and back-to-back games against the Tennessee Titans and Baltimore Ravens, both of which have top-three rushing defenses in terms of total rushing yards and rushing yards per carry allowed, made running the football a pretty difficult task.
It hasn’t helped that the Browns offensive line consistently ranks in the bottom third of the league in terms of run protection on the major grading websites.
To save the running game, Nick Chubb won’t enter that door until at least 2024.
Deshaun Watson, the quarterback, is now under even more pressure to live up to the trade compensation and contract he signed.
Week 6’s trade deadline might offer Andrew Berry a special chance to think about adding another body to the running back room if the team’s run game problems persist when they return to the field.
Berry expressed assurance in their present circumstance on Wednesday.
We’ve seen that Jerome [Ford] gives us big play ability over the first month of the season,” Berry said.
He also makes a significant contribution to the passing game.
It goes without saying that there is a slight ramp-up period with Kareem [Hunt] because he joined us without a camp or spring.
However, we actually consider that position to be more of a platoon position dot.
Most likely, it’s a little more role-based.
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Berry declined to comment when asked if he would pursue star running back Jonathan Taylor in an effort to prevent tampering, but he did add that they are “happy with their running back situation.”.
Fair enough, replacing Chubb would never have been simple.
However, it’s best to never rule anything out when dealing with him.
He admits to himself that he tends to be fairly aggressive when it comes to making moves, but history shows that he’ll swing a deal if he believes it’s necessary to winning.
Berry may need to consider his options when the trade deadline comes around on October 31 even though he currently wants to stick to the plan in terms of the running back room if current trends continue.