It didn’t take The Tennessee Titans three-time Pro Bowl running back Chris Johnson that long to make a name for himself in The National Football League. After earning The Most Valuable Player of The 2007 Hawai’i Bowl in his senior season at East Carolina, Johnson ran a 4.24 40-yard dash at The NFL Combine. The Titans then drafted Johnson with the 24th overall pick of The 2008 NFL Draft. In his first season, Johnson rushed for 1,228 yards which earned him The Associated Press’ NFL Offensive Player of The Year Award. Johnson followed this up by rushing for 2,006 yards in 2009 as he became only the sixth player in NFL history to surpass the 2,000 yard mark in a season. Since that time Johnson’s numbers have steadily declined and three games into this season, he only has 45 rushing yards on 33 carries.
Through three games Titans quarterback Jake Locker is the team’s leading rusher with just 67 yards which is amazing with Johnson on the roster.The Titans were able to score 44 points in the Week 3 victory over The Detroit Lions despite only gaining 59 yards on the ground as they had two special teams touchdowns and a defensive touchdown. It is a tough pill to swallow when this franchise that has produced good NFL rushers in Eddie George and Earl Campbell is currently struggling to run the football. The Titans also have two Pro Football Hall of Fame offensive linemen on their coaching staff in head coach Mike Munchak and offensive line coach Bruce Matthews. The Titans were 31st in rushing last season, 17th in 2010, and 2nd in 2009 which was Johnson’s breakout season.
Currently, Johnson is not on the same page as Titans offensive coordinator Chris Palmer. Palmer has been implementing more passing sets, but even when Johnson gets the ball in space, he lacks the breakaway speed that he had in his first two seasons in the league. Johnson claims that the offensive line is not opening holes for him. I will grant him that the running in the interior has gotten tougher, but Johnson now turns the corner to run outside like a Peterbilt.
It hasn’t helped The Titans running game that team has given up 113 points on the year as they were playing catch up in their first two games which were both losses and thus the threat of the run was eliminated from the game plan. Ever since Johnson signed a four-year, $53 million before the start of the 2011 season, he appears to have checked out mentally which is a shame because Johnson has tremendous talent. Johnson was able to excel under former Titans head coach Jeff Fisher because he always believed in having a tough team that was able to run the football. In order for The Titans to compete in The AFC South, they will need to run the football, especially if they intend on dethroning The Houston Texans as AFC South Division Champions. The Texans are currently 5th against the pass defensively in The NFL through three games and being that this is Tennessee’s next opponent, now is the time for a better effort from Johnson.
According to Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, Johnson is due a base salary of $8 million this year and a $10 million base salary in 2013. Unless Johnson can somehow have a dramatic turnaround to his season, he will not be in Nashville next season as The Titans will cut him. The running back formally known as “CJ2K” could pretty soon become another player who fizzled out to quick in The NFL.
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