Nick Chubb looks to break 1,500-yard plateau in Browns’ season finale

BEREA — Nick Chubb isn’t going to talk about himself. Well, the Browns running back won’t talk a lot about himself.

So when Chubb was asked about the potential to finally clear the 1,500-yard plateau in Sunday’s season finale at the Pittsburgh Steelers, his answer was quintessential Nick Chubb.

“It is something I haven’t done yet so from that perspective it would be nice,” Chubb said Wednesday. “Overall, I just want to go out there and win.”

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If the Browns can go out and beat the Steelers, it would allow them to do something they did just a year earlier, which is to finish the season 8-9. If Chubb can rush for at least 52 yards, something he’s done in 13 of the first 16 games, he’ll finally clear a statistical plateau that has eluded him over the first four years of his career.

Chubb enters the game having rushed for 1,448 yards, his second 1,400-yard rushing season. His best season statistically came in 2019, when he ran for 1,494 yards, making him the only Browns running back not named Jim Brown — who had five in his Hall of Fame career — to have multiple 1,400-yard rushing seasons.

That season, Chubb seemed primed to also win his first NFL rushing title. In fact, he was almost certain to win.

That is, until the Tennessee Titans’ Derrick Henry uncorked a 211-yard performance in his team’s regular-season finale. Henry finished with 1,540 yards.

Chubb, meanwhile, was left to finish second. However, even his teammates would acknowledge the Browns’ 6-10 record that year probably stuck with him more than getting past at the finish line by Henry for the rushing title.