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New Titans offensive coordinator Chris Palmer recently talked about franchise runner Chris Johnson with the Tennessean. In terms of his plans for the team's running backs going forward, it looks to be good news, and bad news, for his starter.
First the good news: Palmer doesn't buy into any idea that Johnson has needs his workload scaled back too much. "When he's not on the field, I think we're hurting ourselves," he says. "We'd like to get him out there as much as we could."
Palmer points to Johnson's weight staying the same all last season, and his high rate of broken tackles, as evidence that Johnson was not at any point wearing down last year.
On the other hand, Palmer also says that there are situations where the team will "definitely be adding a big back", possibly fourth-rounder Jamie Harper, who fits the profile at 5-foot-11, 233 pounds. Johnson, of course, began his career sharing work with the bigger LenDale White.
The possibility of Harper being used in goal-line situations is a negative, obviously, for Johnson's value; it could cost him some short touchdowns. Other top backs like Adrian Peterson and Arian Foster don't seem to have to worry about that possibility.
Palmer's words don't make it a given that Johnson will lose goal-line work, but it does seem like it could happen at times. Something we'll keep an eye on in the preseason games.
--Andy Richardson
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Posted by DAVID DIGREGORIO | Jun. 18 at 02:48 AM
Add this with rookie QBs in Tenn and Minn and it puts Foster at the top of the RB list.