The changes in Kerry Collins just keep becoming more and more evident: this year he's been a leader throughout the off-season program, where in the past he'd be out of dodge the first chance he got:

Usually this time of year, I got home and I wait till the very last minute to come back to camp, but I’m going to come back at least 10 days early and make sure that I’m here and doing all the things necessary to make sure I’m ready once camp starts," Collins said.

"We don’t have a lot of practice time till our first preseason game. I’m more in tune to my role and the fact that I’ve worked hard this off-season. I don’t want to stay away from it as long as I have in the past."

 Coach Fisher is headed off to the middle east on a USO tour with a few other coaches to visit the troops.

 Coach Washburn has Jason Jones focusing on his hand placement and overall technique this off-season.  We need big things from Jones this year... I'd hope he'd be the one guy who really anchors that interior rotation.

 The Football Outsiders are killing time by collectively projecting running back results for next year as compiled by their researchers and writers Twitter followers.  Here's what they have on Crazy Legs:

Wednesday: Chris Johnson

Average Prediction: 270 attempts, 1350 rushing yards, 11 TD

Maximum Prediction: 320 attempts, 1685 rushing yards, 16 TD

Minimum Prediction: 220 attempts, 1150 rushing yards, 5 TD

Yes -- you read that right. An average prediction of 1350 yards for Johnson, who gained 1228 yards last year. And I thought KUBIAK loved sophomore runners ...

My concerns with Johnson are simple. I think he's going to get banged-up, although we're not accounting for that in these predictions. I also think the Titans aren't going to win as many games in 2009 as they did in 2008, which will prevent Johnson and LenDale White from combining for 451 carries again. I think that White will lose more carries than Johnson does, and Johnson will remain a viable threat out of the backfield as a receiver, but 1350 rushing yards seems extremely high for a back who might only get 200 carries next year.

Another interesting note is how confident readers are of Johnson's ability when he does get the ball. Johnson would average 5.27 yards per carry under that maximum prediction ... and 5.23 yards under the minimum prediction.

Now that the slower period of the off-season is upon us your help in finding out of the way Titans stories is more important than ever.  If you have a link you'd like to submit for tomorrow's Morning Links email me at mcmaugustwest@gmail.com! (Be sure to include your commenting handle so I can give you glowing, semi-anonymous credit.)