Browns: Having Nick Chubb AND Kareem Hunt will make 17 games easier to manage

There’s a belief in the NFL that running backs and linebackers are usually the first to give up the ghost, so to speak. They are two high usage positions and neither position seemingly lost all that long at an elite level. That’s because of how often they’re taking or giving hits. This is normally a problem for a 16 game regular season, but now that the NFL is moving to 17 games, and all of a sudden the shelflife of a back may get even shorter. Thank goodness the Browns have Kareem Hunt and Nick Chubb.

The increased schedule was rumored to include a second bye-week to help players rest; that didn’t happen. The NFL did adjust their schedule to scale back on pre-season games, going from four to three. A nothing move, as most players didn’t play in the fourth game anyway.

The Browns are one of the few teams to run two backs as often as they do, with Chubb taking the lead and Hunt filling in. Together they combined for 2,362 combined yards, and 23 combined touchdowns during the 2020 campaign.

Chubb is clearly the better player and Hunt at times struggled with evasion and getting space from defenders; instead choosing to meet them head-on when that was not really known to be his style. Hunt had a slightly lackluster year for all the hype that he came in with.

That doesn’t mean the Browns don’t have the best one-two punch in the NFL though, because they do. It also means the Browns will be able to spare overloading one of their backs due to the extra game. Both guys will get more reps, while still being protected from being overused. In fact, this may open up the door for more touches from the third running back on the depth chart. Whoever that ends up being.

Now with the NFL moving to 17 games, the Browns and the rest of the league are going to need to rely on multiple backs more than ever going forward. While it may not seem like a huge shift, 16 games were already a lot for most NFL players to deal with and now with the addition of a 17th, you’re only going to see more players breaking down.

It might not be a massive increase, but it’ll be there.

The future of rushing the ball is going to have a stable of capable running backs, even if there’s one clear superior player.