More Carries For Hunt?

Kevin Stefanski is the Browns’ new head coach, and with him comes a run-oriented approach. As Minnesota Vikings’ offensive coordinator in 2019, Dalvin Cook (250), Alexander Mattison (100) and Mike Boone (49) combined for 399 carries as Kirk Cousins had 444 pass attempts.

For his part, Hunt sees the Browns running backs “taking over” in Stefanski’s offense.

“They run a lot of two backs,” Hunt told the team’s in-house radio show. “I see myself just coming in and being a 1-2 (punch). You know, Nick and I just coming in and taking over the game every week.”

From Week 10-Week 17 last year, as could be expected with the passing game role he had, Hunt was RB17 in full PPR (RB15 from Week 10-16). On his 43 carries he averaged 2.7 yards after contact , with two touchdowns on five red zone carries. So if he gets more carries, there’s something to be tapped into there.

Hunt should push toward 100 carries in a full season this year, and 50 catches looks like a lock. Give him last year’s 6.5 yards per touch, or even a little more, and 900 combined yards is a solid expectation.

Kareem Hunt 2020 Projection: 95 carries for 450 yards, 5 TD; 58 receptions for 470 yards, 2 TD

In some respects Hunt is a high-end handcuff to Chubb, with top-five upside (in certain weeks or for the season if it went that way) if Chubb were to miss time.

But in PPR formats especially, Hunt is on the radar as a standalone flex option. Naturally, that’s where his ADP sits (RB27, via Fantasy Football Calculator). There’s a little bit of inflated optimism in his standard league ADP right now, at RB27 as well. But Hunt is definitely worth drafting in all formats in the RB3 range.