Chris Johnson is not lacking in confidence. The Titans running back has done anything from announce his plans to run for 2,500 yards to say he would beat Usain Bolt in a race.
Now he says he could post a sub-4.00 40-yard dash time in order to dispatch Bolt.
Johnson ran for a record 4.24 40 at the NFL combine, but he says that wasn’t even his best performance. During an interview with “Pro Football Talk” on NBC Sports Tuesday, Johnson was asked how fast he thought he could run the 40.
“I’m not sure, because when I ran my 40 at the combine, I tripped when I came out a little bit. I stumbled,” he explained. “A perfect start out of the blocks in spikes and all those things, I think I’d break 4-flat. I think I’d probably get like a 3.9.”
Johnson also admitted that last year’s holdout hurt his performance during the season.
“It affected me a lot because I came in not in football shape,” said Johnson. “I needed to get in a groove with my offensive line. Looking at my numbers from last year, I feel like I did a good job toward the end of last year. So it can easily turn around.”
Johnson mentioned 1,600 yards as a number he thought he could achieve this year. He cited his five games with less than 30 rushing yards last year as an example of how much growth he can have.
We’ll see if he can get back to his 2009 form when he ran for 2,006 yards and had 503 yards receiving. I think he’ll rebound this year, but I doubt 2,000 yards are in reach, just like I doubt his ability to run a sub-4.00 40.
