Remember the Titans’ Henry

Remember? Oh my God, it’s hard to forget him! We’re talking about RB Derrick Henry, the man who is the most important player on any team in the league right now… who isn’t a quarterback. In fact, he’s likely more important than a third of the NFL’s QBs.

After 6 games played this year, Derrick Henry is averaging 130.5 yards per game (YPG) and that’s better than 25 other teams in the league. Taken from Pro Football Reference:

Of course, Henry’s team, the Tennessee Titans, are one of the teams he’s not ahead of, but Henry is leading the next best running back who is active (Nick Chubb is out) in the person of Ezekiel Elliott by a whopping 262 yards, or 43.6 yards per game average.

I don’t want to disagree with Jesus — er, Tim Tebow, but there’s no GM in the NFL who’d take Henry over Mahomes.

Hahahahah, hehehehe, hahahaha. Some questions are just too idiotic to even consider. Of course, the reason for mentioning all of this about Derrick Henry is obvious, the Chiefs defense must face him tomorrow at noon time (CST) in a showdown in Nashville.

Juan Thornhill has stated the primary attitude each Chiefs defender must embrace if they are to corral Henry, or at least hold him under 100 yards rushing. When K.C. and Steve Spagnuolo’s defense faced Derrick Henry and the Titans nearly two years go now, in November of 2019, the man rushed for 188 yards on 23 carries, averaging 8.2 YPC. It was the rest of that season when the team put it all together, enough to win out and bring home not only a Lamar Hunt Trophy to add to their trophy case, but a Lombardi as well.

Henry is on pace to break some records this year if he can get past the Steve Spagnuolo and the Chiefs D:

“Henry has 162 carries for 783 yards this season, plus 16 catches for 138 yards, for a total of 178 touches and 921 yards from scrimmage. That puts him on pace to finish the season with 459 carries for 2,219 yards, and 504 touches for 2,610 yards from scrimmage…. Those numbers would break four different NFL records: The all-time record for carries in a season is 416, set by Larry Johnson in 2006. The record for yards in a season is 2,105, set by Eric Dickerson in 1984. The record for touches in a season is 492, set by James Wilder in 1984. And the record for yards from scrimmage in a season is 2,509, set by Chris Johnson in 2009.”

However, Derrick Henry appears to have the right attitude about breaking any records his year:

“I just don’t try to get too caught up in it and worry about things like that. I really worry about how we do as a team, how we do as an offense, and what I can do to help the team each and every week.”

Yep, Henry also has a good head on his shoulders and it looks like his heart if in the right place too. A young man name Kaleb Wagner recently broke Henry’s all-time rushing record in a single game at the High School level for the state of Florida and Henry went out of his way to congratulate him. Wagner was born without his left hand as well as a part of his forearm, and rushed for 535 yards, topping Henry’s previous record best of 502:

Cited by Sports Illustrated, Henry said:

“I think it is incredible,. I thought it was really cool. I got to talk to him a little bit on Instagram and hopefully he breaks some more. That was really cool, definitely an inspiration to me and I am sure he is an inspiration to his team and everybody over there in that community. It was definitely cool to see and hopefully, I can do something for him these upcoming weeks.”

The Chiefs defense faces a tough battle and Henry is recognized as one of the best to ever do it.

He’s so good, that there are coaches, like Andy Reid, who are now comparing Derrick Henry to players from our past:

I remember FB Marion Motely. While I think Derrick Henry is more like Jim Brown with speed, Motley is not a bad comparison:

Reid should count his blessing if his team was ever referred to as a “Motley” crew.

Derrick Henry will go down as one of the best running back in NFL history, but he hopefully has a nemesis in these Chiefs as the K.C. held Henry to 69 rushing yards in the AFC Championship game later in the 2019 season, in a game that determined who would represent the AFC in Super Bowl LIV, won ultimately by the good guys.

While the Chiefs have their work cut out for them in Nashville tomorrow, if they can hold Henry’s impact in check, they should place themselves in a great position to win.

I’m not so sure how the NFL went from Jim Brown’s ultimate value as a running back — a childhood hero of mine — to the bargain basement values placed on RBs in the league today. Although Derrick Henry appears to be the outlier, he was a second round pick in 2016, taken with the 45h pick overall. What’s more, Henry was the second running back taken that year behind Ezekiel Elliott. Oddly enough, it’s Elliott who is now the RB averaging nearly 44 yards less, per games, than Henry.

Good luck to the Kansas City Chiefs defense in stopping the man they now call, King Henry.

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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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