"Carolina Panthers' players and coaches pointed to Chris Johnson's training-camp holdout to explain the sharp drop-off in productivity for the Tennessee running back.

And the Panthers hope the struggling Johnson will hold off at least another week before returning to his Pro Bowl form.

"He missed a lot of training camp, so he's trying to get his legs up underneath him," cornerback Captain Munnerlyn said Wednesday. "It's the middle of the year now, so I'm expecting him to be ready to roll. We don't want him to get rolling on us. We don't want to be the team that he just gets it started on.""