Deshaun Watson's Impact on Browns Running Backs
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As the Cleveland Browns lean into an offense featuring Deshaun Watson, changes are occurring and one of the position groups that has already seen changes has been running back.
Kareem Hunt only played 17 snaps against the Ravens, 26 percent of the team's offensive plays. That is far and away the lowest of the season and stands out for a few reasons.
In 2020, Hunt had a combined 105 rushing yards on 19 carries, 10 receptions for 86 yards and a pair of touchdowns in two games against the Ravens. Splitting him out was the major catalyst for opening up the Browns offense in the 47-42 shootout between these two teams on Monday Night Football.
In 2021 in the second game against the Ravens, Hunt and Nick Chubb were utilized on the field at the same time. Hunt's production wasn't much, but it helped open up the offense until he went down with the ankle injury that would end his season.
Even in talking about this matchup on a podcast with Ken McCusick, who covers the Ravens, Hunt's name immediately draws a reaction. He was able to put stress on the Ravens linebackers in the past.
So for Hunt only to play 17 snaps in this matchup is interesting. He was reasonably effective with the ball, gaining 27 yards on five touches.
Nick Chubb was on the field for a season-high 70 percent of the offensive snaps in this game. They also had D'Ernest Johnson in there for three snaps (5 percent), but he didn't get the ball. Demetric Felton was utilized as a jet player for the six snaps he was on the field in the role they like for Anthony Schwartz.
Chubb rushed for 99 yards on 21 carries, but he also dropped two passes.
The question is why?
Some of this may amount to getting live reps with Chubb and Deshaun Watson on the field at the same time. The previous week against the Cincinnati Bengals, Chubb tied his season-high for snaps to that point, playing 62.5 percent of the snaps in that game. The other time Chubb was on the field for that percentage of snaps was week three against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Watson has operated almost exclusively out of the shotgun dating back to his days at Clemson. Chubb largely operates with a quarterback who is under center. They are both adapting in real time with Chubb taking handoffs from shotgun and Watson playing far more under center.
The Browns want to win these games, but they are also using them as a lab to work on their offense for the 2023 season. In his debut against the Houston Texans, Watson at one point pulled out from under center without the ball drawing a penalty. So when critics are hammering the Browns for utilizing Jacoby Brissett to throw a 4th-and-1 pass from under center against the Bengals, that was likely a factor.
It was important for the Browns to pick up a 4th-and-1 play where Watson was under center and the Browns ran power with Chubb to pick up the first down before scoring the game's only touchdown.
For Chubb, he's adapting to not only taking the ball in more shotgun looks, but some of the read concepts the Browns are employing. The mesh alone takes time to work on, so adding that into some of their run concepts or throwing out of them can be tricky at first.
It always looked like Kareem Hunt was in the last year with the Browns, but the transition to Deshaun Watson might be making that more apparent. It's not that Hunt can't contribute because he has, but his lack of a fit with some of the concepts the Browns want to employ is glaring.
As an example, if the Browns want to operate out of a pistol formation, Hunt isn't a great fit for the deep back or the side car. It's not clear the Browns have a dive back that would excel in that side car role.
With so many read plays coming off of inside zone, they need a running back who can be explosive attacking downhill and process blocks quickly. Maybe they view D'Ernest Johnson or Jerome Ford as players who might do that, but they haven't utilized them to this point. Ford in particular was drafted after the team acquired Watson, so they knew they wanted to run this offense. The Browns may look to draft another running back in April because it's a deep field and they have a ton of mid to late round draft picks.
So much of the 2022 season has been determining which players would be retained that not only fit the direction the team wants to go, but specifically Deshaun Watson and the offense. The remaining three games should provide more insight into some of those pending decisions.
