D’Ernest Johnson was the man of the match in the Cleveland Browns’ win against the Denver Broncos. For a long time it seemed as if the running back would never find a place in the NFL.

Cleveland/Munich – Sometimes you only get one chance in life to make it big. For D’Ernest Johnson of the Cleveland Browns, that was the case in the game against the Denver Broncos in Week 7 of the current NFL season.

Due to the injury absences of star running backs Kareem Hunt and Nick Chubb, the 25-year-old played as a starter in an NFL game for the first time ever.

The result: 146 rushing yards and a touchdown, plus two catches for 22 yards. The hitherto completely unknown running back was named man of the match.

According to “Next Gen Stats” he ran for more yards than expected in 15 of his 22 carries. This was the second highest total since 2018.

D’Ernest Johnson was impressive in his first career start, gaining a career-high +53 rushing yards over expected.

Johnson outgained his expectation on 15 of his 22 carries (68.2%), the 2nd-highest rate in a game since 2018 (min. 20 carries). StatThat