With a new coach heading his way who isn’t necessarily beholden to him, Titans running back Chris Johnson might want tread lightly.
After all, his $8 million salary might not fit with the new guy’s ideas about the position or the system.
But Johnson reversed field on politeness, saying if the new coach wasn’t going to use him more, he’d rather leave.
“I feel like if they are not going to use me the way I am supposed to be used and let me be the horse, then I would rather them let me move on. Their money would be wasted on me,” Johnson told Jim Wyatt of the Tennesseean. “I feel like if they are not going to use me right, let somebody get me that’s going to use me the right way.”
Johnson said he wasn’t asking for a trade, and that he’d continue to work hard if the Titans kept him, but said that he wasn’t taking a pay cut.
But after running for just 1,077 yards this year (the second-lowest total of his career), he’s feeling antsy.
“No disrespect, I love Tennessee and would love to be in Tennessee. But I feel like I am wasting the prime years of my career if I am not used right. You feel me?” Johnson said. “It is crazy to look at backs around the league and see the opportunities they have. I am not a coach, and I am not a G.M. But if I am paying a player to make him the top-paid guy on the team, there is no way in critical situations that he is going to be on the sideline. Around the goal line, I’d come out.
“I want to help the team win. People say, ‘He is not worth the $10 million, he is not worth the $8 million.’ I feel like if you give me $8 million, let me earn it. At crucial times of the game, I shouldn’t be on the sideline watching.”
Of course, the Titans might decide they don’t want him anywhere, after he averaged a career-low 3.9 yards per carry, with just two 100-yard games.