Titans’ Johnson sees running help
NASHVILLE — Chris Johnson looks around the Tennessee Titans and sees an untapped run threat. Not Shonn Greene, though he expects the running back to be a big help, too.
Try quarterback Jake Locker.
Johnson said Thursday that athletic quarterbacks have made teams such as Carolina with Cam Newton, Washington with Robert Griffin III and Seattle with Russell Wilson difficult to defend. Colin Kaepernick helped lead San Francisco to the NFC title with his legs.
The Titans valued Locker’s mobility coming out of Washington, but he got hurt in the season opener a year ago and ran only 41 times. But Locker averaged 7.1 yards per carry when he took off.
Johnson said Locker hasn’t had time to show what he can do and believes the quarterback will have a good year running the ball.
Meanwhile, coach Mike Munchak said Thursday that he usually talks with owner Bud Adams before the season opener to discuss roster cuts, moves and expectations. Adams wants playoffs and wins from his team.
“He’s looking forward to a good year, and so are we, and we’ll just kind of see how it goes,” said Munchak, in his third season as head coach.
A postseason berth would be this franchise’s first since 2008 and would go a long way to help Munchak keep his job. The Titans missed a berth in Munchak’s first season in 2011 on a tiebreaker after going 9-7.
Adams, who turns 91 in January, approved spending more than $100 million this offseason. The Titans brought in 13 new free agents and seven draft picks for a team opening Sunday at Pittsburgh.
Munchak has a four-year contract, but Adams fired chief operating officer Mike Reinfeldt a day after last season ended with a 6-10 record. Asked then if Adams had given his coach a mandate of playoffs or else, Munchak said not yet.
Munchak has been a popular pick as one of the NFL coaches likely to be fired during the season. The coach wouldn’t say Thursday if Adams had given him a number of wins needed to keep his job.
“He just wants success,” Munchak said of the man who has been his boss since this franchise drafted him in 1982. “He just wants us to win and be playing in January, which I assume all of us want. We all know what the expectations are for all of us. That’s something we won’t talk a whole lot about.”
Bears rookies gear up
At Lake Forest, Ill., Chicago Bears rookies Kyle Long and Jordan Mills could be in for a rude welcome to the NFL.
Of course, they are used to facing a top defense in practice and they’ll be staring at another one when the Bears open the season against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. Long insists he’s ready for Geno Atkins.
The Bears made big moves after winning 10 games but missing the playoffs for the fifth time in six years, starting with the firing of coach Lovie Smith and the hiring of Marc Trestman to succeed him.
They brought him in hoping he could help quarterback Jay Cutler reach his potential. That hinges on the line.