SVP's 1 Big Thing: After his graphic Instagram post made headlines, Browns RB Isaiah Crowell has righted his wrong, not only forming a bond with Sgt. Pennie of the Dallas police but also donating his paycheck to the Fallen Officer Foundation. (2:45)

BEREA, Ohio — At one point during Cleveland Browns training camp, coach Hue Jackson looked at his team and said: We are going to lead the league in rushing.

He is a man of his word.

Through four games, the Browns do lead the NFL, averaging 149.25 yards per game.

In the offseason, Jackson also eschewed drafting or adding a running back, saying Isaiah Crowell and Duke Johnson were as good as he has seen in a while and "their talent is extreme."

Through four games, Crowell leads the NFL at 6.43 yards per carry, Johnson ranks second at 6.24 yards. The last time an NFL team had two backs average at least 6 yards per carry through four games of the season: The 1958 Browns, with Hall of Famers Jim Brown and Bobby Mitchell.

It's only through four games, mind you, but Jackson wanted to establish a power running game this season, and he wanted to rely on Crowell and Johnson. The coach has done just that. And even though the Browns are winless, they can point to their running game as something to build on.

Crowell, buoyed by the confidence Jackson has shown in him, has gotten off to an excellent start with some eye-opening numbers.

Crowell…

Ranks second in the NFL with 386 yards

Has the most rushing yards for a Browns back through four games since Jim Brown had 476 in 1965

Is the first Browns back to have at least 60 yards rushing in each of the first four games since Earnest Byner in 1984

Is tied for the league lead with 11 runs of 10 yards or more

Is on pace to run for 1,544 yards and 12 touchdowns (fantasy alert!)

Has the longest rushing play in the NFL this season, an 85-yarder that is also the second-longest play in Browns history.

"He is a tremendous football player," Jackson said. "And he is only going to get better."

The analytics site numberFire.com states that Crowell is the league's most efficient rusher. NumberFire has a metric called net expected points (NEP) that measures how much a play increases a team's chance of scoring. Crowell's NEP leads all NFL running backs (30 or more carries).

Isaiah Crowell is posting rushing numbers that conjure -- gulp -- Jim Brown. AP Photo/Michael Perez

There's more. He is the only back in the NFL to average more than 7 yards per carry in two games. He has had two 100-yard games (he had one coming into the season) and is averaging 98.5 yards per game.

Crowell is doing this while averaging just 15 carries per game. Brown averaged 23.5 carries in the first four games in 1965.

Crowell is not Jim Brown but is off to an excellent start.

To best illustrate that fact, consider that Dallas' Ezekiel Elliott leads the NFL with 412 yards. Crowell is 18 yards behind Elliott with 33 fewer carries. Crowell's per-carry average is nearly 2 yards more than Elliott's.

The key?

"I feel like it's opportunity," Crowell said. "I could have been doing this if I had opportunities like I do now."

Crowell looks and seems quicker, but he dismissed that as well.

"Like I said, I don't think it's anything different that I'm doing," he said. "I really don't know."

Crowell started camp training amidst turmoil. He drew condemnation and the anger of the Browns for an ugly anti-police cartoon drawing he posted on social media in light of police killings of young African-Americans, a cartoon that became that much more troubling when five police officers were killed in Dallas.

Crowell knew he made a mistake and has done everything he can to, as he says, "make it right."

He deleted the post within a minute and called Jackson.

"To me, that is the first sign," Jackson said. "I didn’t have to chase the player. The player chased me to let me know that he had made a huge mistake in judgment."

Crowell apologized publicly and said he wanted to be part of the solution, not the problem. At the invitation of the Dallas Fallen Officer Foundation, Crowell attended the funeral of one of the slain officers so he could meet with and understand police officers and their responsibilities. He also pledged his first game check to the foundation.

And though the foundation said it wanted his attention and not his money, Crowell sent a check for more than $35,000.

"I wanted to be a man of my word," Crowell said.

The reaction from Dallas was positive. Demetrick Pennie, the sergeant in charge of the foundation, told cleveland.com that Crowell's donation made him a celebrity sponsor and said he considered Crowell "like my little brother."

"He gave me a whole different outlook," Crowell said, "and I respect him for that and I appreciate it."

Crowell also apologized, again.