Nick Chubb on pace to reach rarified air in 2022
It’s impossible to measure how beloved Nick Chubb is in University of Georgia circles. Bulldog fans love their former tailback for his individual accomplishments, the way he went about his business, and what he helped the team accomplish right before he took his career to the next level.
Many have continued to follow Nick Chubb into his NFL career and if they keep watching, they might get to see him put together a season that few have matched.
Nick Chubb has already done something no other running back has in the history of the NFL. With 593 rushing yards and seven touchdowns on 98 carries this season, Chubb stands along as the only NFL running back to pile up at least seven touchdowns and 575 yards through five games on fewer than 100 carries.
That’s the present but the torrid start has us monitoring what could happen down the road. Nick Chubb has a chance to join the exclusive 2,000-yard club. If he’s able to do it, he would become the ninth man in NFL history to do so.
That list includes the likes of Eric Dickerson, Adrian Peterson, Jamal Lewis, Barry Sanders, Terrell Davis, Chris Johnson, Derrick Henry, and O.J. Simpson. Each of those backs did it in fewer than 16 games whereas Nick Chubb will have 17 games.
Nick Chubb is currently averaging 118.6 rushing yards per game, projecting him for 2,016 if keeps up the pace. Speaking of keeping up the pace, no running back on that all-time list of 2,000-yard rushers averaged more per carry than Chubb is right now. Sanders averaged 6.1 yards per carry in his 2,000-yard season. Simpson and Peterson each averaged six yards per carry.
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A 2,000-yard season for Nick Chubb would also reflect quite well on Georgia. If that list grows to nine with the Cedartown, Ga. native’s name on it, UGA would become the only school to product a pair of 2,000-yard rushers with Davis being the other. It’s hard to believe that Nick Chubb could be a better representative of the University of Georgia than he already is, but that’s another box he could check off.
Chubb’s time in Athens, Ga. ended with him ranking No. 2 on the school’s all-time leading rusher list behind Herschel Walker. He stands shoulder to shoulder with Walker when it comes to seasons of 1,000-yard or more, totaling three.
Walker had three in three years and Chubb had three in four years due to a gruesome knee injury suffered in game six of the 2015 season. Nick Chubb was averaging over eight yards per carry in 2015 when he got hurt.
He returned in 2016 to rush for 222 yards and two touchdowns on 32 carries in his first game back from the knee injury. He then piled up 1,345 yards and 15 touchdowns in his senior season as the Bulldogs won an SEC Championship and a Rose Bowl en route to the National Championship game.
