Friday, June 22, 2007

LJ Ready to Challenge the Chiefs

When I was a kid I had this game called "Challenge the Chief", there was this big plastic Indian who you had drop marbles in until he could no longer hold the marbles, then the marbles spilled everywhere. It was a very politically incorrect spin on many other Milton Bradley games that were available at the time.

Now it appears Chiefs running back Larry Johnson, who is coming off back to back 1700+ yard seasons, is going to challenge the Chiefs by holding out for a big money contract extension that will put him the same salary neighborhood as fellow AFC West superstar running back LaDanian Tomlinson.

While both are performing at a very high level, LJ has less than half the number of carries in his career as LT, which would suggest he has more mileage left him and would thus be more valuable.

Johnson shouldered a huge load last year with 416 carries, as Herm Edwards seems to have him on the fast track to playing wheelchair basketball with Curtis Martin by 2010. But he spent the first two seasons of his career as Priest Holmes' backup, and thus has only 892 career carries. Tomlinson has had over 300 carries in each of his six NFL seasons, and has 2050 carries lifetime. So while the town fathers have been clucking their tongues this offseason saying LJ may be due for a bad year due to fatigue, I don't think at this point he should really be all that fatigued.

LJ seems to have the Chiefs by the balls here. If they don't give him what he wants, then all of a sudden you have an offense with Brodie Croyle as the QB, and Michael Bennett as the feature back. That could make for a scary season in KC.

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