It’s draft season! There’s no better time to revive the Titans Rewind than now, and today, I want to relive one of their more eyebrow-raising first round selections. We’re taking it back to 2008 for this one. From a personal favorite standpoint, Chris Johnson is one of if not my favorite Titan of my time (you can’t say “all time” if you weren’t around for all of time). If it’s not him, it’s Derrick Henry, but that’s neither here nor there. My point is that CJ2K won me over big time with his speed and electric play style. He was that type of player that you truly held your breath for whenever he touched the ball. I don’t remember too many guys in this market that had that going for him…that feeling you felt because you knew he really could go the distance and score on any play. It wasn’t just hyperbole to highlight Johnson’s speed. It was the truth. He could turn the smallest of windows into an 80-yard touchdown in the blink of an eye. His style was “fireworks show.”
But, his selection wasn’t exactly a popular choice back in 2008. The “wat” lady meme hadn’t been invented yet, but when the Titans picked the running back out of East Carolina, I can distinctly remember being like “wat?” I don’t think I even knew who Chris Johnson was when the Titans took him. I remember thinking myself that the pick made no sense. It felt like an absolute luxury at best, and a boneheaded call at worst. This piece from Jon Francis on Bleacher Report that year is a nice little trip down Memory Lane. I distinctly remember feeling the “Vince Young needs a receiver” takes myself. This was prime “the Titans don’t value wide receivers” era in franchise history. You want to talk about Stockholm Syndrome, we were trying to tell ourselves that Justin Gage and Justin McCareins were going to help get VY to the next level.
I also remember thinking the “why would they take a back when they already have LenDale White and Chris Henry?” question was a fair one. Why on Earth would they neglect other positions of need to stockpile talent at the running back position? Back in 2008, you could still get you a workhorse – the committee approach was still in its infancy stages. The New York Giants were the first team I remember doing it with three really talented backs in 2007. Maybe the Titans were going to lean on that, but at what cost? Leaving weapons on the table for their young quarterback?
The “Johnson is too small” conversation was running rampant as well. There was a reason he was considered a mid-round pick, after all! But, he went to the Scouting Combine and ran a 4.24 40-yard dash that tied the NFL’s record and stood until John Ross broke it in 2017 with a 4.22). There was a part of me that, at the time, felt like the Titans were too hung up on the speed and ignoring the fact that he was 5’11” and 197 poinds.
Reading Johnson’s scouting report back 16 years later is funny too – who the fuck cares about his pass pro now? Who is questioning his leg churn now? All Johnson did was hit the ground running in the NFL, no pun intended, post 1,228 rushing yards, and make a compelling case for Offensive Rookie of the Year (Matt Ryan won it (damn, if you think about AJ Brown, the Titans have had two guys who could’ve won OROTY, but didn’t!)). It was his first of six straight thousand yard seasons, with a 2K+ season in there in 2009, too. To this day, he’s one of this franchise’s icons. In fact, I think you can actually make an interesting argument that Johnson should be considered for the NFL Hall of Fame. At the very least, some team should sign him and run him enough to get the 349 yards he’d need to join the 10K club.
His drafting goes to show that not every pick we don’t understand is a bust. That doesn’t mean they all pan out, but Johnson’s case is an example of a situation in which we all just should’ve waited to see on. He became an all time great, and made all of us who were asking who he was look foolish. Keep this in mind once we get well into draft season!
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, second on Football & Other F Words, analyst for Stacking The Inbox, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, the NFL Draft, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley.
Elsewhere on the SoBros Network: Check out Stacking The Inbox for premium coverage of the Tennessee Titans and NFL Draft. Subscribe to Nashville Movie Dispatch for all of our movie content. We get weird on Phone It In, the history podcast that explores legendary tales, important historical figures, and events.
