Healthy and more explosive, Hunt looks to recapture form
Through Thursday’s Browns training camp practices, running back Kareem Hunt looks poised to recapture his 2017 magic.
Carrying the load after running mate Nick Chubb suffered a concussion Monday, Hunt looks lighter, faster and more explosive.
He is no longer bothered by the groin injury that kept him out at the start of camp a year ago.
He also may be running with a purpose.
Hunt has something to prove to new General Manager Andrew Berry and coach Kevin Stefanski after being pulled over for speeding in late January. A small amount of marijuana and a previously opened bottle of vodka was found in a backpack in the backseat of Hunt’s car and he admitted to a Rocky River police officer he would have failed a drug test. It was another off-the-field misstep for Hunt, suspended by the league for the first eight games last season.
Whatever he is using for motivation, Hunt appears ready to return to the form of his rookie year, when he won the NFL rushing title with 1,327 yards for the Kansas
City Chiefs.
“He’s fully healthy and he knows at one point in time he led the league in rushing ... He’s hoping to have the opportunity to showcase what he can do again,” run game coordinator/running backs coach Stump Mitchell said Thursday.
New right tackle Jack Conklin, a free agent from the Tennessee Titans, has already taken note. When asked about Chubb, whose 1,494 yards fell 46 shy of matching the total of last year’s rushing champion, the Titans’ Derrick Henry, Conklin made it a two-back answer.
“It is going to be a lot of fun, even with Nick and Kareem,” Conklin said Wednesday during a Zoom video conference. “It’s not often you get two guys that are that good on one team.”
Hunt credits the hard offseason workouts he was put through by Matt Luck, his former high school track coach at Willoughby South, for his improvement.
“I ran a lot of hills, agility [drills] and pulled a lot of sleds to work on my explosion,” Hunt said during a Thursday Zoom call. “I spent a lot of time squatting in the garage, a big garage.”
Chubb previously revealed he and Hunt ran a hill together in Westlake. Hunt said they challenged the hill multiple times and did other conditioning workouts.
“We definitely pushed each other,” Hunt said. “Running next to him, we try to keep up or one of us tries to lead. Each and every rep, we always compete. We love it, too, because we know it is going to make us better.”
During those sessions, there may not have been much trash talking going on.
“I am going to let Nick speak in silence. He is his own type of guy,” Hunt said. “We joke around and stuff like that all the time. He is definitely quiet when it is time to work, and he is always working.”
Both must adjust to a wide zone scheme this season, but Mitchell said they ran it and an inside zone last season.
“What we did not do off the wide zone a whole lot was run keepers,” Mitchell said. “Nick ran it in college, and Kareem some, as well.”
For Hunt it goes further back than that.
“I feel like I have been running the outside zone my whole life, through Pee Wee, through middle school, high school, Toledo and Kansas City,” Hunt said. “I just read it out pretty well, I guess.”
As he described what he liked about the scheme, Mitchell made it sound like a perfect fit for Hunt.
“I have always loved it, especially for guys that have the ability to make quick cuts,” Mitchell said. “You get guys running, and now you give them the impression that you are going one place and then you go somewhere different.”
Mitchell sees two talented backs running behind an improved offensive line, boosted by the signing of Conklin and the drafting of left tackle Jedrick Wills 10th overall. Center JC Tretter is currently rehabbing after undergoing knee surgery on Aug. 13 and might not be ready for the Sept. 13 opener at Baltimore.
“It is great to have those (two), but I tell you what, it is great for us to have the offensive line hopefully fixed,” Mitchell said of Chubb and Hunt. “The main thing not having been together as a team is these runners need to understand the strengths and maybe slight weakness of an offensive lineman so they can make things happen.”
An NFL running back for nine seasons and an assistant for 18 more, Mitchell believes Hunt and Chubb still have room to grow.
“Oh, yeah, absolutely. There were a couple of times Nick missed a couple of runs last year or he would have won the rushing title,” Mitchell said. “These guys, they are not happy with any mistakes they make. They are always trying to improve.”