Titans' White: Shoulder injury to blame for fewer carries

Running back LenDale White said Tuesday that a shoulder injury that has cost him time in practice was a primary reason he got only three carries in Sunday’s 13-10 victory over the Baltimore Ravens.

White, who had split carries evenly with Chris Johnson for the first three games of the season, had 11 carries against Minnesota and scored a touchdown, but had just three rushes for four yards Sunday. Johnson had 18 rushes for 44 yards against the Ravens.

“I was injured. I’m pretty sure my shoulder was down on the injury report. I didn’t practice for a couple of days at the first of the week,” White said Tuesday.

White said he is not unhappy over his lack of carries Sunday and pointed to the team’s 5-0 record as further reason to be satisfied despite a lesser role.

The former Southern Cal star, who rushed for 1,110 yards last year as Tennessee’s featured back, said he suffered the shoulder injury in the second game of the season when the Titans won at Cincinnati and that it has been bothering him ever since. White missed practice time in each of the Titans previous two weeks.

“I did it in the second game up at Cincinnati,” White said. “It’s been nagging me, but it’s got time to get right. We’ve got a bye week. I’m getting healthy and I look forward to playing Kansas City.”

On Monday, Titans coach Jeff Fisher did not mention White’s shoulder as a reason for not using him more against the Ravens.

“It was not by design, it was just the way the game went. We were using Chris, he was effective,” Fisher said. “We didn’t anticipate having as much difficulty running the football and we just tried to mix things up. It’s not a case where Chris has outplayed LenDale, it’s just one of those deals where we didn’t get a lot of snaps. We had some three-and-outs and they had some long drives and it just happened. He will be equally involved in our plan when we come back.”

White said the bye week will allow for extra healing, and that he is ready to resume his role in the offense.

“I’m ready to go. Just ice it and let it heal, that’s all I can do,” White said.

TRADE?: Talk has been that the Detroit Lions would consider trading wide receiver Roy Williams, a possible attractive piece to a contending team, since the Lions are winless and in rebuilding mode. There have also been rumors of Cincinnati perhaps trading T.J. Houshmandzadeh for the right price.

However, the issue with that if a team like the Titans were to acquire Williams, Houshmandzadeh or anyone else is that it would take time to integrate him into the offense as a skill-position player.

“During the middle of the season, it would take a month to learn the system,” Fisher said, talking in generalities of acquiring a receiver in midseason.

He said teams don’t often part with talented players, even teams that are not winning, and said that the San Diego Chargers’ acquisition of Chris Chambers from Miami a year ago was simply a unique situation.

“The issue with trading before the deadline is the seller,” Fisher said. “Everybody is interested in obtaining good players. It doesn’t make sense to get rid of good players. You keep them. You go all year long trying to get good players. If there are trades for backups and things like that, so be it, but teams are just not interested.”

Fisher didn’t sound as though the Titans were seriously in the hunt to acquire anyone at the present time with the trade deadline a week away.

“This is where our focus is,” he said, referring to the current roster.

INJURIES AND REST: Titans defensive end Kyle Vanden Bosch, who suffered a groin injury in Sunday’s win at Baltimore, was among the players who did not practice in Tuesday’s light workout.

Fellow defensive lineman Tony Brown, who hurt his ankle against the Ravens, also did not practice.

Wide receiver Justin Gage did not practice Tuesday after missing Sunday’s game with a right knee injury. Cornerback Reynaldo Hill remains out with a hamstring injury.

The Titans appear optimistic all four could be back next week in Kansas City after resting them this week.

Several players were also rested on Tuesday, including starting quarterback Kerry Collins, receiver Justin McCareins and cornerback Nick Harper.

Collins’ rest time allowed both Vince Young and Chris Simms to get needed reps normally not made available to backups during the work preparing for an opponent.

Fisher said Tuesday that Collins likely would not do much this week.

WORKOUTS: The Titans worked out a number of defensive backs on Tuesday, including veteran cornerback Tyrone Poole and veteran safety Terrence Holt. Others in for tryouts to go on the team’s emergency list included John Busing, Jerome Carter, Tanard Davis, Alton McCann, Rashod Moulton and Jerome Perry.