5 Cleveland Browns whose stock jumped in Week 12 win against Bengals

2. Nick Chubb

Everyone knew Nick Chubb might be a decent runner in the NFL, but nobody though he’d be turning heads with his ability to catch passes out the backfield.

But that rap starts to change during the combine, and the Browns were thrilled to get an excellent runner with good hands that everybody else seemed to be underrating.

Now, despite being one of the most elusive runners in the NFL, Chubb owns the Browns’ best catch of the season.

Chubb also had 84 yards on 28 carries. It wasn’t a spectacular day with Chubb ripping off a long run, but the Bengals knew the Browns were rushing the ball pretty much every down in the second half.

Chubb did enough and ground out enough yards to make the running game effective.

If it weren’t for Baker Mayfield, Browns fans would be carrying the torch for Chubb, the 35th overall pick in last spring’s draft to win the hardware.

Chubb is first in the NFL in elusive rating, according to PFF (minimum of 100 attempts). Kareem Hunt is second.

According to the analytics website, this statistic quantified the impact of a running back “independently of the blocking in front of him by looking at how hard he was to bring down.”