After last year’s loaded draft class it’s time to start taking a look at the best running backs available in the 2018 NFL Draft, starting with Georgia football’s Nick Chubb.
Nick Chubb‘s college football journey has been a crazy one. Chubb has a phenomenal freshman season in which he totaled 1,760 yards and 16 touchdowns. Just one season later, Chubb went down with one of the most gruesome knee injuries we have seen in recent years. However, he was able to recover in time for the 2016 college football season to show us all, once again, what he can do when healthy.
While Chubb did not post the same sort of numbers in 2016 that he did just two seasons previous in 2014, he still had an impressive season. Last year, he rushed for 1,216 yards and 10 total touchdowns, also averaging 5.3 yards per carry.
Health concerns
A few factors came into play limiting Chubb’s ability to put up the same type of stat line that he did his freshman season. The first is the presence of Sony Michel on the depth chart. There’s no denying Michel’s ability, as he is one of the most capable backups in the country. The other two big reasons you have to figure that Chubb did not put up the same sort of numbers is the continued recovery process from his hyper-extended knee and the preparedness of fellow SEC teams that faced him.
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You know what you get from Chubb when you’re a linebacker, defensive lineman, or safety trying to contain him. There’s no getting around the fact that he’s going to break quite a few tackles and show impressive breakaway speed after he’s gets through the first level of the defense.
That ability to get beyond the first level of tackles is also one of the many reasons that Chubb will be so good at the NFL level. It’s extremely hard to contain him at the line of scrimmage because he can break ankle tackles so easily and he actually has a surprisingly quick cutback and one cut ability when he first takes the hand off or catches a pass out of the backfield.
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2018 NFL Draft implications
There are some of the other contenders to be potential first round picks at the running back position in the 2018 NFL Draft: Alabama’s Bo Scarbrough, Penn State’s Saquon Barkley, Oregon’s Royce Freeman and LSU’s Derrius Guice come to mind. A few other names that could rise up the ranks include USC’s Ronald Jones, Iowa’s Akrum Wadley and Vanderbilt’s Ralph Webb. Among all these names, only Freeman has as much experience among elite college football running backs as Chubb. That’s a valuable commodity for any NFL team willing to take Chubb.
The biggest challenge for Chubb to stay among potential first round picks in the 2018 NFL Draft is staying healthy. His 2015 knee injury still lingers among college football fans and scouts alike. That hyper-extension against the Tennessee Volunteers two years ago is hard to forget. Yet, for the most part, he managed to stay healthy in 2016. But running backs, as a whole, seem to be one of the most injury prone of all positions in football.
According to Rotoworld’s latest 2018 NFL Mock Draft, Chubb will be selected in the first round, no. 24 overall, by the New York Giants. Chubb has a great chance to be a first round pick if his health holds up. Another knee injury could turn away teams from selecting him early in the NFL Draft.
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Watch out for Chubb to have another big impact on the college football world in 2017, especially if you a Georgia Bulldogs fan. They have a loaded backfield and a potential superstar quarterback in sophomore Jacob Eason.