Cleveland Browns fans watching the AFC championship game on Sunday may have found themselves reminiscing as they watched Cleveland native Kareem Hunt score the first touchdown of the game on a 12-yard run for the Chiefs.
Not so long ago Hunt was scoring touchdowns for his hometown team the Browns, most recently in 2023. That season, Hunt – a free agent – was the Browns first call when Nick Chubb went down with a devastating knee injury in Week 2 and went on to provide a massive spark for the Browns, scoring nine touchdowns during Cleveland's run to the playoffs.
Cleveland ultimately opted for not bringing Hunt back this season and he found a home with the team that drafted him in September. It's been a fruitful experience for the Toledo product who rushed for 728 yards and seven touchdowns.
But if Browns fans found themselves longing for the days of Hunt rocking orange and brown, they may find solace in a potential replacement for the former Browns tailback, and Cleveland doesn't have to look far to find him.
Just south down I-71, running back Quinshon Judkins just helped lead the Ohio State Buckeyes to a national championship last week and would be a perfect fit for the Browns backfield in 2025 and beyond.
Like Hunt, Judkins has a knack for seeking out contact. Look no further than his nine yard touchdown run against Notre Dame last week, where he avoided a tackle for a loss with a soul-crushing stiff arm, and then ran through multiple tackles to find the end zone. It was a "grown-man run" as the kids would say. It's a good way to describe many of Judkins runs throughout his tenures at Ohio State and Ole Miss.
In two seasons with the Rebels, Judkins racked up 2,725 yards and 31 touchdowns, including a 1,500-yard campaign his freshman season, that helped him take home the the SEC rushing title in 2022, on top of setting a school record for yards in a season. The 21-year-old averaged 5.5 yards per carry, and over three yards after contact proving to be a missed tackle machine during his three college seasons.
In his junior season with the Buckeyes, Judkins eclipsed 1,000 yards again in a split backfield with fellow standout tailback TreVeyon Henderson. Judkins also scored 14 touchdowns on the ground and another two through the air.
He and Henderson combined to form a deadly one-two punch of a backfield, with Judkins serving as a more physical downfield back and Henderson being a change of pace style player. The duo was deadly in helping lead Ohio State to a title over the last month. The shared workload also helped preserve both players for the NFL Draft.
Judkins physicality also translates to his willingness to block out of the backfield. And even though he lacks the elite explosiveness to hold his top speed, his elite burst allows him to hit the hole with authority and stampede into the second and third levels of the defense with ease. His tape should serve as a dream for Browns fans of what a lead horse out of the backfield.
Cleveland's running back room is in a transitional phase at the moment. Chubb, coming off a second consecutive season-ending injury, is set to hit free agency. A broken foot is less serious than the gruesome knee injury he suffered one year prior, and in truth there is a very logical path that reunites Chubb and the Browns this offseason. Even if he returns though, how much can Cleveland really bank on him returning to the elite runner he once was at this point? It's a question that will likely set the tone for the team's offseason plans at the position.
Meanwhile, Jerome Ford has shown some promise as the lead tailback in the Browns backfield. He averaged 5.4 yards per attempt this year. But is he truly the elite level back Cleveland can depend on?
Adding Judkins into the mix with the likes of Ford and potentially Chubb could restore domininance to the Browns run game, with the rookie morphing into the team's lead back for years to come. His presence would also take Browns fans back to a time when Chubb and Hunt used to wreak havoc over the NFL as one of the league's best backfield.
