NFL Player News

The Titans will begin shopping star running back Chris Johnson around to other teams in the league, Pro Football Talk reports on Sunday. If the Titans can't find any takers, they will cut the 28-year-old.

Johnson has cracked the 1,000-yard mark in each of his first six seasons. He 1,077 of his 7,965 career yards came in 2013. He also had six rushing touchdowns while averaging 3.9 yards per carry -- the lowest YPC in his career.

The Buccaneers re-signed running back Bobby Rainey to a one-year contract. He was scheduled to be an exclusive rights free agent.

Rainey ran for 566 yards and five touchdowns and added a receiving score last season.

The Vikings re-signed running back Matt Asiata, an exclusive rights free agent, to a one-year, $570,000 contract. Asiata could back up Adrian Peterson if Toby Gerhart leaves via free agency.

Titans running back Chris Johnson underwent January surgery to fix a torn meniscus, the first surgery of his career. He told the Tennessean he's doing rehab in the pool to strengthen the muscles around his left knee because he's not yet cleared to run.

However, he said he'd already be running if he'd had the procedure during the season.

“I have never been a guy to sit out when something was hurt," Johnson told paper about his Week 3 injury against the Chargers. "The only way I would sit out is if there was no way possible I could play. If I can work through it, I want to play. I want to be out there to help my team win, and that’s the way it’s always been.

"I am not going to make excuses, but you can talk to anybody who’s had a torn meniscus and they know how it affects you. I’m not going to sit here and tell you if I wouldn’t have had a torn meniscus I would have had 1,600-1,700 rushing yards last year, but my teammates know what I was going through.”

As he waits for the Titans to decide if they'll release him, Johnson called his 2013 season an aberration. He averaged a career-low 3.9 yards per carry.

“I have a whole lot left. I have only played six years in this league. And that is what my focus is on,” he told the paper. “My focus is not on whether the Titans are going to let me go and if they’re going to do this or that, my focus is on getting back healthy so I can start working out. And wherever I am this year I’ll be ready to play and ready to help a team win.”

Titans running back Chris Johnson said his agent spoke to team brass Tuesday and everything remains at a standstill, reports the Tennessean. Tennessee is deciding whether to release Johnson, who's owed $8 million each of the next two seasons and $9 million in 2016.

Johnson has said he won't take a pay cut.

The Broncos plan to let Knowshon Moreno leave as a free agent this offseason and go with their young running backs in Montee Ball and C.J. Anderson, reports the Denver Post.

The report says about Moreno "the Broncos appear willing to let him go in exchange for pushing second-year backs Ball and Anderson up a notch." And Ronnie Hillman will get a chance to help out as well.

The main benefactor is Ball, and the report says the "Broncos want to give Ball the first chance at becoming their No. 1 running back in 2014."

Anderson will be No. 2, and Hillman will work into the rotation as well. The Broncos will also look to bring in a veteran, and the report says free agent options include Darren McFadden, Donald Brown and James Starks.

With Darren McFadden and Rashad Jennings both expected to hit the free agent marketplace, this offseason should be huge for Raiders running back Latavius Murray. On injured reserve for his rookie season with an ankle injury, Murray might be in a position to land a big chunk of the Oakland run game workload. Coach Dennis Allen will be watching and evaluating. 

"I think Latavius is one of those guys that we're anxious to see be healthy and get out there and play," Allen said according to ESPN. "He's a big back that's got excellent speed and excellent size. He runs tough ... we'll find out a lot more about Latavius Murray as we go through the offseason program and into training camp."

Murray is 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds, a physical pounder who had 19 total touchdowns and over 1,300 total yards in 11 games as a senior at Central Florida in 2012. 

In what shouldn't be a surprise given their new offensive coordinator's tendencies, the Ravens will move to a zone-blocking scheme. Gary Kubiak has had much success working in such a format in his time in the NFL and will look to keep it going as the Ravens begin handing out their new playbooks to players in the near future, per the Baltimore Sun. 

The scheme could favor backup running back Bernard Pierce, who ran in a similar system in college. Veteran running back Ray Rice, currently embattled in an off-field issue, could adapt to it easily but struggled (along with Pierce) when the team tried to use zone blocking last year. 

The Ravens might need to add a couple of fresh linemen to make the transititon smooth. 

It remains unclear who will start at running back for the Colts, and the question could stay unanswered until Week 1, reports ESPN.com. Trent Richardson is coming back from a shoulder cleanup, Vick Ballard is returning from a torn ACL, and Donald Brown is headed to free agency.

General manager Ryan Grigson is in no rush to provide the answer.

“At any point in time you'll know how we do things with the Colts, it's the best players play,” he told the website. “Iron sharp as iron. We're going to try to have the most competition at each position group and whoever wins that spot is going to be the starter and it's who is going to get us to that next level, which is Super Bowl XLIX and that's the mindset. You're either all in or all out."

The Titans met with running back Chris Johnson's agent at the NFL Scouting Combine, but his status did not change, reports the Tennessean. Johnson won't accept a pay cut from the $8 million he's scheduled to make in 2014, and the team has not decided whether Johnson is worth keeping at that price, the report said.

Johnson is rehabbing from offseason arthroscopic knee surgery.