Can Nick Chubb be a fantasy football MVP this year?

The fantasy football MVP this year might be someone you’re not expecting — but someone you need to draft.

In a world of Alvin Kamara’s and Ezekiel Elliott’s, you might have to look elsewhere to find this year’s fantasy football MVP. Not that either of those players will have particularly bad years, rather Nick Chubb is in line to have an extraordinarily good one.

Last season after Chubb took over for Carlos Hyde, he averaged 17.8 PPR points per game and could exceed those numbers after the departure of Duke Johnson, who was frequently used in third-down situations. Cleveland has already stated that Chubb will be used much more in the passing game, and even with Duke in town last season, averaged 7.5 yards per catch on 20 receptions last year. This Cleveland offense added Odell Beckham Jr. in the offseason which gives them another downfield dynamic playmaker which defenses will need to focus on, which could, in theory, open up more check-down routes to Chubb out of the backfield.

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Nick Chubb has been going in the first six picks in all of my fantasy drafts this season, and there is a slight concern about what will happen after Hunt returns. However, one thing that all of the Footballers mention is that a lot of Chubb’s upside will be determined by his pass-catching ability, and involvement in the Browns aerial attack. One thing we seem to overlook with running backs nowadays is their ability to actually run the football.

The NFL is a passing league, so we all go after the pass-catching running backs first in our drafts. For example, Christian McCaffery and Alvin Kamara are both elite receivers but are not quite as good at rushing when compared to other top-end running backs such as Saquon Barkley, and Ezekiel Elliott. Chubb last season was averaging 5.2 yards per rushing attempt and almost eclipsed 1,000 yards, despite only starting in nine games.

If we compare these rushing numbers to that of other top-end backs, you will see that Saquon averaged five yards per rushing attempt, Zeke averaged 4.7 yards per attempt, Kamara averaged 4.6, and C-Mac averaged five flat. Notice anything from these trends?

Chubb averaged more yards per rushing attempt than any other top running back in the league. He is a workhorse, and Cleveland will deploy him as such. Even if Kareem cuts into his receiving work later in the season, Nick still has plenty of upside as a pure rusher and in a potentially dynamic Browns offense has a path to being a fantasy football MVP in 2019.