D'Ernest Johnson

UDFA out of South Florida — 7 years in the NFL across 4 teams and 1 Alliance of American Football season.

Johnson went undrafted in 2018, played for the Orlando Apollos in the AAF in 2019, and signed with Cleveland after the league folded. Four years as the Browns RB3/RB4 behind Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, then a 2-year Jacksonville stint, and now finishing 2025 with Arizona then New England.

Career totals: 228 carries, 1,014 rushing yards, 3 TDs — modest, but anchored entirely by his 2021 breakout.

Why it matters. Johnson is the rare undrafted back who found a way to stick 7 years by threading the needle between special-teams value and backup carry efficiency — his arc is the ceiling for this roster archetype.

Week 7 of 2021 vs Denver: 22 carries, 146 yards, 1 TD — career game in a Thursday-night spot start.

With Chubb and Hunt both out, the Browns gave Johnson the Week 7, 2021 Thursday-night start vs Denver. He responded with 22 carries, 146 yards, 1 TD, plus 2 catches for 22 yards. It was the kind of "where did this guy come from" national-TV breakout that turns career-UDFAs into household names for one news cycle.

He followed it up with a Week 18 game vs Cincinnati: 25 carries, 123 yards, 1 TD — and finished 2021 with 534 rushing yards in just 13 games, on a 5.3 YPC clip.

Why it matters. The Week 7 spot-start is the defining moment of Johnson's career — proof that a UDFA Browns depth piece could handle a feature-back workload on a national stage when the moment arrived.

His 2021 season (100 car, 5.34 YPC) ranked 4th among all 38 RBs with 80–200 carries that year — only 3 backs with similar volume topped his efficiency.

In 2021 Johnson ran 100 times for 534 yards — 5.34 YPC. Among the 38 RBs who logged 80–200 carries that season, only 3 topped him in efficiency. That’s a top-10% per-carry mark for a backup who wasn’t even on the depth-chart radar entering the year.

His 4 feature-back starts finished 2-2 with 70 total carries (17.5 avg) and 3 rushing TDs. The two wins came against playoff-bound teams (DEN and CIN); the two losses by 38 and 5 points respectively.

Why it matters. A 5.34 YPC season ranking top-4 among volume backs separates Johnson from typical depth-chart filler — it’s the statistical reason he kept getting contracts despite never becoming a featured starter.

In 2023 Johnson was Jacksonville’s RB2 receiver with 10 catches for 140 yards — behind only Etienne, ahead of Tank Bigsby (1 catch, 6 yards).

Everyone remembers the 2021 CLE breakout, but Johnson quietly carved a pass-catching role with Jacksonville in 2023: 10 receptions for 140 yards in 16 games while Tank Bigsby handled the bulk carries. Over 2 JAX seasons (2023–24) he totaled 22 catches for 236 receiving yards — the RB3 check-down option Jacksonville kept for passing-down situations.

The rushing role shrank to 3.4 YPC on 73 JAX carries, but the receiving value kept him employable well past when his ground efficiency faded.

Why it matters. It shows Johnson evolved from a pure ball-carrier into a positional receiver, extending his career shelf life years after his Cleveland breakout efficiency faded.

Career 4.45 YPC ranks 22nd of 87 RBs with 180–280 career carries — top-quartile efficiency on a depth-piece volume.

Johnson’s 228 career carries at 4.45 YPC put him in the top 25% of all RBs who accumulated similar career volume (180–280 carries). Among that 87-player cohort in the database, only 21 backs posted a better per-carry average.

For context: Nick Chubb in 2025 ran for 4.15 YPC on 122 carries — below Johnson’s career rate, though Chubb’s career total (7,349 yards) dwarfs Johnson’s 1,014 by over 6,300 yards. The efficiency was real; the volume was never there.

The 2025 season (14 carries, 25 yards across ARI and NE) at 1.8 YPC confirms the runway is finally exhausted — a career that lived entirely on the 2021 breakout and special-teams value.

Why it matters. Top-quartile career YPC proves the 2021 efficiency wasn’t a fluke — Johnson was a legitimately efficient runner who simply never got the touches to translate it into meaningful career volume.