Advertisement

Browns’ late trade forcing Bucs to make late adjustments

 
Published Oct. 20, 2018

TAMPA — The Bucs were already prepared to see the Cleveland Browns establish their vaunted running game on Sunday at Raymond James Stadium, but now, they will have to adjust their game plan to see more of rookie running back Nick Chubb than they previously expected.

After the Bucs completed their practice week, the Browns traded leading rusher Carlos Hyde to the Jacksonville Jaguars for a fifth-round draft pick, altering the identity of a Cleveland rush attack that enters Sunday ranked fifth in the NFL with 137.7 yards per game.

Hyde was the workhorse base in the Browns' three-headed running back monster, leading the team in carries (114) and rushing yards (382), but fellow tailbacks Duke Johnson and Chubb also played significant roles in the Browns offense.

The unusually-timed trade — Jacksonville needed a replacement for injured running back Leonard Fournette — will allow Cleveland to give Chubb more of a role. The rookie out of Georgia hasn't received many carries — just 16 going into Sunday's game — but he's shown some big-play ability by averaging 10.8 yards per carry. In the Browns' loss to Oakland three weeks ago, Chubb carried the ball just three times, but had touchdown runs of 63 and 41 yards as part of an 105-yard day.

Chubb hasn't had more than three carries in any of his six games this season, but he figures to gain the most from the Browns' trading Hyde, and now the Bucs have to account for Chubb playing a bigger role in Cleveland's ground game and for defending the potential for Chubb breaking off big runs.

"We would anticipate that he would probably be their primary ball carrier now," Bucs head coach Dirk Koetter said Friday on his weekly radio show. "… But we were preparing for all three of them to be playing anyway, and it's kind of a unique situation."

Koetter said a trade coming this late in the week is rare. He said Friday he couldn't remember a similar situation. The Bucs had gone through all three of their practices when they heard about the trade on Friday afternoon.

"I don't think, in my time, I've never seen it where a trade happens this late in the week right before a game," Koetter said on his radio show. "It's crazy. I just got word about this about an hour ago. You've already had your practice, you've already had your Wednesday, Thursday, Friday practice."

Koetter said it will make for a more busy walk-through day on Saturday.

"They're not going to change what they do," Koetter said. "They're just going to change who's carrying the ball, so yeah, I don't know. I haven't been in this situation before. When we get in there tomorrow with the coaches, we'll talk about it. We'll talk about it with the players. We'll look at a little bit more film on those other guys."

Reach Eduardo A. Encina at eencina@tampabay.com. Follow him on Twitter at @EddieInTheYard