Beyond his historic 2,000-yard season, the Tennessee speedster nearly eclipsed Barry Sanders' legendary consistency, cementing a dual-threat campaign that still stands as the gold standard for scrimmage yards.
One calling card of the Tennessee Titans has been elite running back play.
Even going back to their days as the Houston Oilers, the franchise had Earl Campbell. He led the NFL in rushing yards over the first three years of his career and posted four consecutive 1,000-yard seasons out of the gate.
When the franchise became known as the Tennessee Titans in 1999, they already had their next star running back on the roster. Eddie George was drafted in 1996 out of Ohio State.
He played one season with the Oilers before the move to the Volunteer State. George finished as the all-time leader in career rushing yards in Titans history, with 10,009.
Then, there was Chris Johnson.
Johnson ran for 2,006 rushing yards in the 2009 season. He left the franchise fourth in all-time career rushing yards (7,965).
Derrick Henry was next in line.
He joined Johnson in the 2,000-yard club in 2020 and is second all-time in career rushing yards (9,502).
Going back to Johnson, what he did in that 2009 season was special. It was only his second year in the league, and he joined a very exclusive group of running backs.
In that same season, Johnson nearly made more NFL history. Aside from rushing for 2,000 yards, he nearly broke Barry Sanders' record for most 100-yard games in a single season.
Sanders played for the Detroit Lions from 1989-1998 and has the fourth-most career rushing yards in NFL history (15,269). Sanders also had a tremendous season in 1997, recording 14 100-yard games that year.
Johnson came close to reaching the record, with 12 100-yard performances in 2009. He is currently tied for second with former Dallas Cowboys and Titans running back DeMarco Murray, who had 12 in 2014.
It's not every day that a Titans player has his name mentioned alongside an NFL legend like Sanders.
As a whole, Johnson had 2,006 rushing yards, 503 receiving yards and 16 total touchdowns. He had 2,509 scrimmage yards, which still stands today as the most in a single season.
Christian McCaffrey came close to breaking Johnson's record with the Carolina Panthers in 2019, accounting for 2,392 scrimmage yards that season.
Everyone focuses on how Johnson ran for over 2,000 yards in 2009, but it's crazy to realize how close he was to setting another NFL record that year.
If Johnson had just a few more 100-yard games, he would have set three records in the 2009 season.
