Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson says he can't play for his current salary, Jim Wyatt of The Tennessean reports.

"I can't play for $550,000," Johnson said. "The money that I am playing for, I am getting paid less than the starting 11 (on offense) and I'm one of the lowest paid starting running backs in the league."

There's no question that Johnson is the most under-paid player in the league, and has vastly outperformed his contract. He deserves a new deal, and regardless of the precedent that it would set, the Titans should follow the path paved by the San Francisco 49ers in the Patrick Willis deal and bring Johnson's compensation to where it belongs.

Technically, Johnson is playing for over $1.5 million dollars this season, when you factor in the proration from his 2008 and 2009 bonus money, which totaled over $4 million dollars. Still grossly underpaid, but he's making close to the same in total compensation as Dallas Cowboys running back Felix Jones, who was chosen two spots ahead of him in the 2008 NFL Draft and is expected to start for the Cowboys this season.