Risk of Signing Larry Johnson Pays Off for Bengals in Win over Browns

The Cincinnati Bengals received some criticism for the Chiefs-running-back-Larry-Johnson-signs-oneyear-deal-with-Cincinnati-Bengals" title="signing of running back Larry Johnson">signing of running back Larry Johnson after his release from the Kansas City Chiefs a few weeks ago. After Sunday's win over the Cleveland Browns, the Bengals appear to have made the right move.

With an improved offensive line, Johnson showed the Bengals why signing him for insurance he was worth the risk after his 107-yard rushing performance against the Browns in Cincinnati's 16-7 win over Cleveland.

Johnson was signed by the Bengals as insurance in case running back Cedric Benson's hip injury would keep him out longer than expected.

With another player on the roster with a history at being the No. 1 running back, head coach Marvin Lewis felt better about resting Benson for the second-straight week against the Browns.

Along with Johnson, he felt confident enough to rest Benson because of the impressive play of rookie running back Bernard Scott the last three weeks.

After rushing for 119 yards in his first career start against the Oakland Raiders last week, Scott ran for 87 yards on just 18 carries against a Browns defense ranked 29th in yards allowed per game with 159.9.

In seven games with the Chiefs this season, Johnson struggled with a weak offensive line, averaging just 2.7 yards-per-carry while rushing for just 377 yards and zero touchdowns.

In his first two games with the Bengals, he is averaging 4.7 yards-per-carry—thanks to an improved offensive line.

From 2005-06, Johnson was arguably one of the top running backs in the NFL, running for a combined 3,539 yards and 37 touchdowns.

Part of the reason why Johnson was able to find such success was because the Chiefs had one of the top offensive lines in the league.

Now that he has an improved offensive line, it should be interesting to see how the Bengals can use him as another option at running back.

It may be just one game, but the Bengals and their fans have to be excited about Johnson breaking the 100-yard mark in just his second game with his new team.

Dan Parzych is the Cincinnati Bengals Examiner for Examiner.com

He is also the founder of WhoDeyBengals.com