Jul 30th 2008 8:07AM by JJ Cooper (author feed)
Filed under: Titans, AFC South
There’s been a lot of speculation that Chris Johnson can solve the Titans glaring problems at wide receiver, but as the explains, Johnson will be kept busy in his role as a running back, to the point where Johnson’s chances at wide receiver apparently will be few and far between.
“I am just looking at him as a tailback,” offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger said. “What we do outside of turning and handing him the ball is a bonus. He can do a lot of things, but I want to find out if we can turn and hand him the ball and how many times we can do that. I look at it different than all the ‘experts.’ I expect to see him out there on first and second down.”The Titans are being specifically vague about exactly how they’ll use Johnson, but it seems like Tennessee hopes eventually that he’ll be able to fill a Bryant Westbrook role, where he’ll get plenty of carries (Westbrook averaged around 13 carries a game during his first four seasons) while also catching a lot of balls out of the backfield (Westbrook averaged 45 catches per year in his first four days).
With Lendale White having plenty of durability but little explosiveness, there are lots of reasons to hope that Johnson can take some carries away from White. But one name we’re not hearing a whole lot of as training camp starts is Chris Henry. Last year’s second-round pick seems to be destined to be the third-stringer with few opportunities unless injuries crop up.
