Hyde rushed for 382 yards on 114 carries (3.4 yards per carry) with five touchdowns as the Browns main bell cow in the backfield.
This means that the sparingly used Nick Chubb will become the main ball carrier and Duke Johnson will see some more snaps, although his role should not change.
Chubb has been spectacular in limited use, but the key word is limited as Chubb has carried the ball just 16 times for a 10.8-yard average that is built around those two long touchdown runs in Oakland.
Nick Chubb certainly deserves more carries and I would have had no problems at all giving those to him.
However, the problem for me is that Chubb has already had a major knee injury at Georgia, has never been the workhorse ( Sony Michel shared carries) and since Duke Johnson is not anything more than a situational back ( love what he does,but not a 15-20 carry a game player), the Browns suddenly lack depth at running back.
My problem is that I would have preferred moving Chubb into the main role, but keeping the carries reasonably close for this season to also test Chubb for durability.
Again, my issue isn't Hyde vs Chubb, it is that a team that has lacked depth for years has just traded
their depth away for a late fifth round choice.
I just don't see the rush for the Browns, although the Jaguars with an ailing Leonard Fournette are in a hurry to make the trade, but you could make the argument that a desperate team may have paid more, then again perhaps not.
One argument for the trade could be that Hyde was likely to be released at the end of the year anyway, so why not get something for him?
I see that and I'd bet that with Hyde's contract taking an almost three million dollar raise for next year, I'd say that was likely unless Hyde was willing to take a pay cut.
Still, this team has seen what one injury/trade can do to a team at wide receiver and they are walking a dangerous line now at running back.
I don't feel too badly for Carlos Hyde, who will be joining a team that reached the AFC title game and will offer him plenty of carries, at least for a while.
John Dorsey has managed to accumulate a few extra picks for next season, although it is not nearly as glittering as last year's draft of course.
The Browns currently have all of their 2019 picks, the Patriots 3rd and 5th rounders (Danny Shelton and Josh Gordon), the Jaguars 5th (Carlos Hyde) and possibly the Jaguars 7th (If Cody Kessler remains on the roster for the entire season), so they have a little ammo to make a move up into day two positions, should they desire.
I'm not a fan of this trade.
It relies too much on Nick Chubb being a workhorse, that he may or may not be ready for, but what I do think is this- John Dorsey and Hue Jackson aren't on the same page.
Not because Jackson isn't using Dorsey's guy (Chubb), because Dorsey signed Hyde too, so this isn't a case of moving a guy along that an incoming GM was stuck with.
It is more of a case of this- Dorsey thinks Chubb needs more carries after seeing his production in limited use.
Jackson continued to use Hyde far more often and since Jackson does control who plays on the field and Dorsey thinks Chubb is the future but is being held behind Hyde, Dorsey simply forces Chubb on the field by removing Hyde from the equation.
Make no mistake, there are disagreements between these two men, who were forced together via shotgun marriage and if Nick Chubb doesn't perform as well as hoped- there will likely be a clash after this season and Jimmy Haslem will be forced to make a choice on which man should be trusted with the future of the Cleveland Browns.
Back later with the boxing challenge.
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