CINCINNATI -- Every time Cincinnati Bengals right tackle Amarius Mims sees Chase Brown fly past him, he breathes a sigh of relief.
When Mims catches a glimpse of Cincinnati's second-year running back zipping past the line of scrimmage, it signals that Mims and the offensive line blocked long enough to find a gap for Brown to wriggle through.
And Brown has done plenty of that recently. Since Week 11, Brown is seventh in the NFL in Expected Points Added on rushing plays, a metric that more accurately measures a running back's effectiveness than yards gained.
Brown's emergence is significant for Cincinnati's future. A couple of weeks ago, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow highlighted the importance of finding the cornerstones the team can build around moving forward. Brown has cemented himself in that group.
"He's been unbelievable," Burrow said after last week's 37-27 win over the Tennessee Titans. "He really has. It's exciting to see him come along like that. He's going to play here for a long time. He's going to be a great player for us for a long time."
Like the rest of the Bengals (6-8) this season, the rushing attack has suffered from inconsistency. After a good start to the year, Cincinnati sputtered in the middle of the season. In contrast, Joe Mixon, the team's starting running back the previous six years, was thriving with the Houston Texans after the Bengals axed him in the offseason.
But over the last five weeks, Brown has thrived. While Brown ranks seventh in rushing EPA during that span, Mixon ranks 72nd, per ESPN Research.
Brown has excelled after taking on a bigger workload. At the beginning of the season, he split reps with Zack Moss, who was signed in free agency to replace Mixon. But once Moss went on injured reserve on Nov. 5 with a neck injury, Brown took on the brunt of the workload.
Bengals coach Zac Taylor pointed out that in his final year at Illinois, Brown was one of the top rushers in all of college football (1,643 yards in 2022). With the second-most carries that season, too, Brown displayed a rugged durability to withstand all those touches.
That was apparent against the Titans. At one point, Taylor checked in with assistant Justin Hill, who coaches the running backs, to see how much Brown had left in the tank. No issues, Hill reported back.
So when it was time to close out the game, Taylor put the ball in Brown's hands. Ten of the team's final 12 snaps were handoffs to Brown, including a touchdown that gave Cincinnati a 37-21 lead with 1:09 left.
It was quintessential Bengals football -- build a two-score lead through the air and finish the game off on the ground.
"That's how a good football game is," Taylor said on Monday. "We pride ourselves on being the best passing team in all football. So we're going to get ourselves in a position to build leads. That's how we want to do that."
Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said Brown has been the team's most consistent player outside of Burrow and wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase. When the year started, the Bengals were hopeful that Moss and Brown could be a dynamic 1-2 combination. But since Moss's injury, Brown has shouldered the bulk of the carries, even after the team traded for Khalil Herbert.
And with more reps, Brown's vision as a runner has improved, which has allowed him to reel off some big rushes over the last few weeks.
"He's forced to make quick decisions," Pitcher said. "Just like anything the more you do it the better you are going to get at it. He's had a lot of opportunity for us and he has earned that opportunity."
And for a team looking for players to build around for future years after a disappointing 2024 season, Brown has proven he will be an integral part of Cincinnati's push to be a championship team once again.
"He's really played himself into a position where it is hard for us to take him off the field," Pitcher said. "That's a tribute to him. I think he's improving in all areas of his game."