Titans assuming CJ1K won't be "himself" against Jaguars

The Titans held running back Chris Johnson out of practice for a second straight day because of ankle soreness.

Johnson took part in individual drills prior to practice, and Coach Mike Munchak is still expecting the fourth-year pro to play Saturday against the Jaguars at LP Field.

“We’re assuming he is,” Munchak said. “Today was encouraging because even he thought he would be sorer than he was. Again, it’s the old ‘he’s progressing like you’d hoped he would.’ We’ll see how he is (Thursday) when he starts doing some cutting. If he doesn’t have any soreness from that, then we should be in good shape.”

Munchak acknowledged that Johnson is likely to be at less than 100 percent on Saturday, meaning rookie Jamie Harper should see more action.

“We’re assuming Harper will get more carries than he normally would — just because we’re assuming C.J. will be somewhat not himself,” Munchak said. “If for some reason C.J. is not even able to suit up … I would think we’d want Harper to get the majority of the carries depending on how much we run the ball.”

On this news, Johnson is looking like a fringe RB2 this week. The matchup is solid, but expectations need to be low due to his bad ankle and reduced workload.