3 NFL Storylines to Watch in Week 12

Cleveland Should Put Up Their Duke...Johnson, That Is.

If the Cleveland Browns finally decide to feature Duke Johnson, they might pick up their first win of the season, as they take on the Cincinnati Bengals. This, of course, assumes that last week's shoulder injury does not limit Johnson from playing. (The issue is a re-aggravation of an earlier injury that did not result in any missed time.)

So here's why Cleveland needs more Duke in their life. Since their Week 7 bye, the opposing Bengals are top-5 in successful run play rate against. During this time, they've been gashed for 134 rushing yards by Le'Veon Bell and found a way to allow 82 yards to a 34-year-old Frank Gore, his only game all season with more than 60 rushing yards. Since then, a number of running back duos have paired up to find success against the Cincinnati on a weekly basis.

In Week 9, Chris Ivory and T.J. Yeldon combined for 111 rushing yards, followed by DeMarco Murray and Derrick Henry tallying 94 rushing yards in Week 10. Last week, C.J. Anderson and Devontae Booker racked up 81 rushing yards and 73 receiving yards.

In order for this matchup to work for Cleveland, they must hand the ball to Johnson with more frequency -- after all, Isaiah Crowell has been one of the worst running backs in the league. Whereas Johnson is second among all running backs with an NEP of 13.49 as a rusher, Crowell's -20.41 NEP is ahead of only Adrian Peterson and Jonathan Stewart.

Only Alvin Kamara features a better NEP per rush than Johnson among running backs who have exceeded 45 carries. And none of this is factoring in the big contributions either player is also making as a receiver. Last year, Johnson was a top-15 running back in overall NEP, but was buoyed heavily by his pass catching work.

Despite running the ball well -- admittedly in a small sample -- Johnson has only been seen double-digit carries once all season. And it's not like Johnson can't handle a heavy workload -- he saw 242 carries and 38 receptions in his final year at Miami. (Duke is also the Hurricanes' all-time leader in rushing yards, ahead of names like Ottis Anderson, Edgerrin James, Clinton Portis, Willis McGahee, and the aforementioned Gore.)