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RB LenDale White, Tennessee Titans

HT: 6-2, WT: 235, Born: 12-20-1984, College: USC, Drafted: Round 2

2008 Projections

Average draft position

Current as of June 28th. [Full ADP list]

Overall: R Johnson (53), J Jones (54), LenDale White (55), C Johnson (56), D Bowe (57)
Position: R Johnson (53-RB25), J Jones (54-RB26), LenDale White (55 - RB27), J Stewart (58-RB28), M Forte (59-RB29)
Click here for a comparison of these players.

 Click here to go to the LenDale White faceoff, our staff's look at the pros and cons.

Outlook

LenDale White finished the 2007 season with 1110 yards and 7 touchdowns, a marked improvement from 2006. Even more impressive is that he had played the season with a torn knee ligament. Despite his continuing unpopularity in fantasy circles, we think LenDale White offers fantastic value this season. Tennessee should rank in the top-5 of the league in rush attempts and White should garner a majority of those carries. And while his low YPC may sound alarms at first, Eddie George was a very successful back in this system while producing a similarly low number. White doesn't break many long runs, but he is very effective grinding up yardage between the tackles. If Tennessee's new offense, Vince Young's development, and the strong play of tackles Michael Roos and David Stewart all gel as expected, White should exceed even the loftiest expectations this season.

Relevant Articles

Why he is undervalued

David Dodds - Despite a low 3.6 ypc rushing average, White managed to finish as the 15th best RB in 2007. And he did all that despite playing with a torn meniscus last season. The team added speedster Chris Johnson through the draft, but he looks like he will be more of a change-the-pace runner in the style of Reggie Bush. This is a very safe selection this season at this price.

2008 Schedule

2007 Game Summaries

Week 1 - White started the game and although he did not have nearly the yards Brown did, was the featured back on most of the short-yardage situations, including the vast majority of the goal line carries. He ran with good power, and did not go down easily, although he was tackled early on most of his rushing attempts. The passes thrown to him were short dump off passes.

Week 2 - White rushed for the bulk of the yards for the Titans. He averaged 4.2 yards a carry and rushed for one touchdown. He was the featured back on the opening drive of the game.

Week 3 - White ran with determination and looked good doing it, though it didn't necessarily show in the final stats. The Saints clearly game planned to shut down the Titans running attack, so it was tough going for White at times, but he fought hard for the extra yards and was able to score a short TD run in the third quarter to put the Titans ahead for good. White did nothing in this game to jeopardize his starting job, though keep in mind that he will continue to share carries with Chris Brown.

Week 5 - White opened the game as the starter, but saw his carries decline throughout the first half after a fumble that was returned for an Atlanta TD when he had found an opening to the right outside. The Titans went back to splitting carries in the second half, and utilized White on their final drive to try to run out the clock, though unsuccessfully. White received twelve carries to counterpart Chris Brown's ten.

Week 6 - White shouldered the load for the Titans on the ground, with 25 rushes for 64 yards and a touchdown run from two yards out that tied the game in the fourth quarter. He seemed to be running hard, but just could not find many holes in the Tampa Bay defense. White also chipped in with two receptions for nine yards on six targets in the passing game.

Week 7 - White did not split carries with RB Chris Brown in this game because Brown did not play because of an ankle injury. He got a lot of carries in the first quarter of the game. He had nine carries in the first quarter but, only had 23 yards against a tough Texans run defense. But his fortunes changed in the second quarter when he got a one yard touchdown plunge. He continued to get lots of carries in the first half as the Titans dominated the time of possession. He finished the first half with 16 carries for 50 yards. Tennessee continued to pound the ball in the second half and White broke a 28 yard run in the fourth quarter, the longest run of the day by the Titans. RB Chris Henry was mixed into the rushing game a little more in the second half, but White still had 11 carries for 57 yards. It was big day for White who finished the game with 27 carries and 107 yards, including a touchdown.

Week 8 - White continued his strong play of late, running the ball 25 times for 133 yards for a 5.3 yard per carry average and adding eight yards on one reception in the passing game. White showed the skills that earned him the starting job, and seemed to get stronger as the game progressed. He had open holes all game long and showed a good burst once he hit those holes.

Week 9 - White was a workhorse, carrying the ball 31 times for 100 yards and a score. On his touchdown, he carried the ball four straight times with all of them being power runs. White did fumble deep in his own territory but lucky for the Titans it did not hurt them. Carolina missed a field goal on the ensuing drive. On the opening drive, White had two carries inside the Carolina ten yard line but could only get it down to the three yard line. Young took it into the end zone from the three.

Week 10 - White could not get on track against the stout Jaguars' defenders, and left the game in the third quarter with a leg injury, although he remained on the sideline. While he was in the game he could not get by the first wave of defenders and his attempts to overpower them were unsuccessful.

Week 11 - White had a lackluster performance in front of his hometown friends and family, especially in light of the premier match up he had against the 31st ranked Denver rushing defense. He never got on track, and regularly failed to get past the defensive line or first set of linebackers on his rushing attempts. He also was taken out of the game plan a bit with Denver leading by multiple scores throughout a majority of the game. White's longest run was 11 yards. He lost a second quarter fumble, when Broncos defensive lineman Marcus Thomas knocked the ball out of his hand. He caught both of his passing targets on dump offs.

Week 12 - White started the game and played the first two series before being replaced by Chris Brown. The Titan plan was to rotate their backs, and it appeared to benefit White more than Brown as he had the longest run of the game on an11 yard run to give Tennessee first and goal from the six for their second trip into the red zone. He would touch the ball on the next three plays, but was called for a personal foul on the last play when he kneed a Bengals defender in the head after being tacked out of bounds. He only returned to the game for one goal line carry in the fourth quarter.

Week 13 - White averaged five yards per carry, with a long of thirteen yards before departing. His injury was initially described as a shoulder injury, however later reports noted a dislocation of his middle finger. His status for Week 14 is not known at the time of the release of this game recap.

Week 14 - White had one of the best games of his career against a very stout run defense. He was the only reason the Titans were able to sustain drives, and provided the team with a much-needed spark on a day when no one else seemed to want to make any plays. He was pretty much untouched on his touchdown run as he went up the middle with very little resistance. But the same cannot be said for most of his other 29 carries. In one of the more physical games of the season, White pounded his way to 113 hard-fought yards. In fact, White was so instrumental to the team's success that it's entirely possible that overuse of him is the only reason the Titans weren't able to win. Late in the fourth quarter as the Titans tried to run out the clock, White handled the ball on seven consecutive plays during one series (and an astounding eleven carries overall in the fourth quarter). Following the seventh rush, Chris Brown came in to give him a breather. After picking up just one yard, the Titans threw incomplete on third down, and had to punt the ball away -- this at a time when one more first down would have just about sealed the victory for Tennessee. The Chargers got the ball back, tied the game on the ensuing drive, and won it in overtime.

Week 15 - LenDale White has a firm grasp on the starting running back position at Tennessee. He bulled his way through the Chiefs' defenders for 93 yards on 24 carries. He was punishing to the defensive line and linebackers as he gained quite a bit of his yardage after first contact.

Week 16 - White was the workhorse again for the Titans as he rushed 23 times for 103 yards. It was his fifth 100 yard game of the season and helped him eclipse the 1,000 yard mark for the first time in his career. White ran hard and found holes to run through as he kept the chains moving and the Jets defense on the field. He was the focal point of the offense and was the deciding factor where on a third and six, he gained seven yards, picking up the first down and sending the Jets packing with their 12th loss of the season.

Week 17 - White started and was the key focus on the opening drive. He ran the ball on four consecutive plays for 35 yards to open the game, running through good sized holes and not going down on contact. After that drive he found the running tough as there were few holes to run through and he was met in the backfield before he could get much forward momentum going. White had a costly fumble on the first drive of the second half when he gave the ball away on the Titans 30. That fumble led to a Colts touchdown that would give them a brief 10-7 lead.

Week 18 - White had a lot of success running the football right at the heart of the Chargers defense, much like he did in the first meeting between these teams. A lot of his runs were of the straight ahead, smash them in the mouth variety. This plan worked extremely well in the first half of the game, but the Titans got away from him later in the contest. White had 50 yards at the half, but finished with just 69. It was his running that consistently gained 3-5 yards that always set the Titans up for manageable third down situations, and they took advantage of those repeatedly for much of the afternoon. At one point late in the first quarter, White carried the ball five teams in a row and seven of nine plays overall. When the Tennessee offense was running through him, the team was controlling the clock and holding the lead. When Tennessee could no longer run or chose to no longer run, the game got away from them.