The small town of Yulee, Florida, produced arguably the greatest high school running back of all time, and that running back has gone on to achieve greatness at every level of the game. Derrick Henry's road to football immortality has taken him from high school GOAT to Heisman Trophy winner to NFL star. At all those stops, "King Henry" has left a trail of defenders either broken or in the dust. This is the story of how the king got his crown and how the legend of Derrick Henry continues to grow.
High School Dominance
One easy way to describe Derrick Henry as a high school player is "cheat code." When he arrived at Yulee High, he was already 6'3", weighed over 200 pounds, and was itching to hit the field. He didn't get to play much in eighth grade due to a rule put in place appropriately nicknamed "the Derrick Henry rule." Anytime Henry's middle school team went up 21 points, they had to pull him out of the game. Because of his dominance, he was stuck on the sideline a lot. That didn't stop him from using that time to hone his greatest weapon, though—a weapon that no one else possessed: a stiff arm from hell. With either arm, he could flatten anyone who dared to try and tackle him, and it didn't take long for every high school in Florida to hear about the power back from Yulee.
As a freshman, Henry rushed for 2,465 yards and 26 touchdowns in just 11 games—that's 224 yards and over two touchdowns per game. Derrick's numbers continued to improve over his sophomore and junior seasons, but what he did as a senior doesn't even seem possible. In 13 games, he rushed for 4,261 yards and 55 touchdowns. For those of you keeping track at home, that's 327 yards and over four touchdowns per game. That season, Henry broke the national high school career rushing record, a mark that had stood for almost 60 years, and he did it in style. In a playoff game against Perry Taylor County, Henry was credited with 58 carries for 482 yards and six touchdowns, passing Texas prep legend Ken Hall, who set the mark in 1953. But that wasn't even his season-high in yards. Earlier in the year, he went for a state record 510 yards in a game. He finished his high school career with a mind-boggling 12,124 rushing yards.
College Career at Alabama
By the time he set the career record, he had already committed to play college ball at Alabama. He gave his verbal commitment in early October of his senior year, so there was a ton of hype around him when he joined the team in January of 2013. But in April of that year, his college career was halted before it even got started. During a spring scrimmage, Henry broke his leg. The good news was he had surgery to repair the injury, and after his recovery, he was cleared to play as a freshman, though his touches were limited. But whenever he got the chance to run the ball, he showed his enormous potential. On 35 carries, he averaged 10.9 yards per attempt.
Then, as a sophomore in 2014, he got an increased workload while splitting carries with T.J. Yeldon. Henry rushed for over 900 yards. After that season, Yeldon went to the NFL, leaving Henry as the Crimson Tide's feature back, and offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin was ready to feed him all he could eat. In Henry's junior season, he was just too big, too strong, and too fast for the competition, so of course, he feasted. In 15 games, Derrick ran the ball a staggering 395 times for 2,219 yards and 28 touchdowns. Those stats earned him the Heisman Trophy over Stanford superstar Christian McCaffrey. One month later, Henry capped his college career with another amazing feat of strength. In the national championship game against Clemson, he ran the ball 36 times for 158 yards and three touchdowns, and Alabama won 45-40 in a wild shootout. With that, Henry had nothing more to accomplish in the college game and was off to the NFL.
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NFL Draft and Rookie Season
But before being drafted, he had to show what a physical specimen he was at the scouting combine. The highlight was his 4.54 time in the 40-yard dash, which may not sound that great until you realize that he weighed 247 pounds at the time. He was closer in size to linebackers and tight ends than to running backs. Despite his size, he also posted a 37-inch vertical jump. It was like watching a superhero disguised as a football player.
After the combine, the burning question about Henry was when he would be drafted. Surprisingly, the consensus was that it wouldn't be early. You see, Henry was a throwback runner. He didn't catch many passes out of the backfield, and on top of that, he had a ton of wear and tear from his high school and college career. So teams were worried about how well he'd fit in the modern NFL and how long he would last in the league. But Henry was a rare talent. According to his NFL.com pre-draft player profile, he could be a violent runner without even trying and had top-end speed for a runner his size.
When the draft rolled around, Ezekiel Elliott was the first running back off the board when the Cowboys selected him fourth overall. On a lot of teams' draft boards, Henry was the next back listed, and one team just couldn't pass on him when he fell to the second round. So, on Day 2 of the draft, the Tennessee Titans traded up to 45th overall to take Derrick Henry. In the minds of some analysts, the pick was a bad one because in March the Titans made a trade with the Eagles to acquire DeMarco Murray, who was the NFL's rushing leader in 2014. Like Henry, Murray was a powerful inside runner. But Tennessee coach Mike Mularkey wanted to run a "ground and pound" style offense that would help take pressure off the team's young quarterback, Marcus Mariota. Besides, Murray was 28 and declining physically, so he was not the future in Tennessee.
In the 2016 season, Murray, Henry, and Mariota formed a three-headed monster in the run game. At the end of the year, Tennessee was third in the NFL in total rushing, and in 15 games as a rookie, Henry contributed 490 yards and five touchdowns on the ground. As he was doing that, he was also showing the pro football world that he could literally throw grown men through the air with that stiff arm from hell.
Becoming the Titans' Lead Back
In 2017, Henry challenged Murray for the No. 1 running back spot. The two backs had almost identical workloads, and Henry finished the year with more yards. Then, in Week 16, Murray suffered a serious knee injury. This was Henry's opportunity to show that he could be a bell cow back, so he took the job and ran with it like only Henry could. In Week 17, he started against the Jaguars. He carried the ball 28 times, rushing for only 51 yards, but the Titans got the win, securing their spot in the playoffs.
The Titans' wild-card playoff matchup with the Chiefs would serve as Derrick Henry's true introduction to the pro football world. In that game, Tennessee wanted to control the clock and keep KC's top-five offense off the field. For that plan to work, Henry would need to produce, and he delivered. But it didn't happen right away. At halftime, the Titans trailed 21-3, and Henry only had 45 yards. But as we all know now, Derrick Henry always gets better in the second half because as the defense gets tired of tackling him, he's just getting started. In the third quarter, the Titans put together a 16-play touchdown drive that got them back in the game. Then, in the first minute of the fourth quarter, Henry broke loose for a 35-yard touchdown run. Suddenly, the Titans trailed by just five. On their next possession, the Titans took the lead, and after that, the defense forced a turnover on downs. Now Tennessee just needed a first down to win, and of course, Henry was the one to pick it up as he rumbled 22 yards to sink the dagger. After only having 45 yards at halftime, Henry finished the game with 156. With the victory, the Titans headed to the divisional round to play the Patriots.
But in that game, Henry's magic disappeared. In the first half, the Pats contained him, and after New England went up 21-7 in the second quarter, Tennessee abandoned the run. Henry finished with just 28 yards on 12 carries.
The Rise of King Henry
So it was on to the 2018 offseason, which would prove to be a massive turning point in Henry's career. First, after the loss to the Pats, the team fired coach Mularkey and replaced him with Mike Vrabel, another coach who preached toughness. Second, in March the team released DeMarco Murray, who was still recovering from his knee injury. Now Henry was in position to become the Titans' lead back, and with Vrabel in charge, he had the opportunity to become a star. He was paired with veteran Dion Lewis for the 2018 season, but Henry got the majority of the carries as Lewis was more of a pass-catching third-down back. This was enough for him to record his first 1,000-yard season, plus he set a career-high with 12 rushing touchdowns. In Week 14, he began his torture of the Jacksonville Jaguars—a tradition he would continue his entire time in Tennessee. But in this game, it was 238 yards and four touchdowns, including this incredible 99-yard touchdown run. It was the most typical Henry run, too. He threw off defenders with his stiff arms, and then he ran away from everyone to the end zone.
It was his time to become a superstar, and in 2019, he did just that, becoming the NFL's most productive runner. In just 15 games, he led the league in rushing attempts, yards, and touchdowns. He never carried the ball fewer than 13 times in a game, and he was officially the centerpiece of the Titans' offense. And let's not forget the yearly Jags beatdown. This year, in Week 12, Henry ran for 159 yards and two touchdowns against them. But in the playoffs, he was even better. In fact, he was amazing. In the wild-card round against the Patriots (also known as Tom Brady's last game for New England), he went for 182 yards and a touchdown on an insane 34 carries. In the divisional round against the Ravens, Henry put up 195 yards on 30 carries and a passing touchdown! He had carried the Titans all the way to the AFC Championship Game, but against the Chiefs in Kansas City, the big rig was stopped. Henry was held to 69 yards on 19 attempts, and Tennessee lost by 11. That loss ended the Titans' Super Bowl dreams, and it was the closest Henry got to the big game with Tennessee.
A 2,000-Yard Season and Injury Woes
But just because that was the furthest he advanced in the playoffs with the Titans doesn't mean we had seen the best version of King Henry. Even though he had just carried the ball 386 times and gotten 410 total touches, Henry had so much more left in the tank. He was 26 and reaching his peak form. The result was one of the greatest seasons by a running back in NFL history. In 2020, Henry became just the eighth player ever to rush for 2,000 yards in a season. He did it on a whopping 378 carries—the most in the league that year—and he led the NFL with 17 touchdowns. Now you know that if the king rushed for 2K, the Jags got their annual whooping, which was in Week 14 when he ran for 215 yards and two touchdowns. But this season, the entire AFC South felt his wrath. He rushed for over 200 yards in three different division games and rushed for over 1,000 yards against divisional opponents alone. For his efforts, he earned Offensive Player of the Year honors. But in the playoffs, the Titans were eliminated in the wild-card round by the Ravens, and Henry had just 40 yards rushing in the loss.
After another postseason disappointment, it was on to the 2021 campaign. Henry and the Titans had something to prove, and the year started great for both. From Weeks 2 through 6, Henry posted five consecutive 100-yard games, and after seven games, he was on pace for another 2,000-yard season. Tennessee, meanwhile, was 5-2 and cruising to a division title. But life in the NFL is never that simple, and in Week 8, everything changed. Against the Colts, Henry suffered his first major injury since college. In the first quarter, on a seemingly harmless running play, he broke his right foot. He finished the game, and Tennessee won in overtime, but Henry would have to get surgery to repair a Jones fracture in his foot and would not play again in the regular season.
Now wait, Jacksonville, you're not getting off the hook. Before his injury, Henry rushed for 130 yards and three touchdowns in Week 5 to make sure the Jags wouldn't forget about him. Then he did make it back for the playoffs. In Tennessee's divisional-round game against Cincinnati, he had 62 yards and a touchdown, but the Titans suffered a three-point loss. For the first time in his pro career, Henry's health was being questioned. He was a bruising back, and his body had taken a beating over six years in the NFL, plus he was now 28 years old, which is the point in most running backs' careers when they start to decline. So how well would he perform post-injury?
Post-Injury Resurgence
Well, let's just say he was great again. In 2022, he led the NFL in carries for a third time and turned in his fourth 1,000-yard season. Doing that at his age made the numbers even more jaw-dropping. And for our yearly Jaguars check-in, the king rushed for over 100 yards in both meetings with his favorite division rivals. His 2023 season was a slight drop-off by his standards, but to be fair, the Titans team as a whole was crumbling. Henry topped the league in carries once again, but his yards decreased. On the plus side, he still managed to score 12 rushing touchdowns. But after a 6-11 season, the Titans' management hit the reset button. They fired coach Vrabel and released Henry. It's only right that in what ended up being Henry's last game in Tennessee, he rushed for 153 yards and a touchdown against—yeah, you guessed it—the Jaguars. What a twist!
A New Chapter in Baltimore
But as great as King Henry had been, would teams be interested in signing a 30-year-old free agent running back to a premium contract? The answer was an emphatic yes, and Henry wound up joining the perfect team. On March 12, 2024, he signed a two-year, $16 million contract with the Ravens. The two sides had been interested in joining forces for some time. In 2023, the Ravens reportedly tried to trade for Henry at the deadline. Then Henry, in his introductory press conference, said Baltimore was where he knew he wanted to be. This pairing made so much sense. Baltimore had Lamar Jackson at quarterback and some solid receivers but still needed that power runner to fill out the offense and help close out games. Pat McAfee put it really well: "Jackson and Henry in the same backfield," he said, "is obviously something you would piece together in a Madden game."
Now Henry had to live up to the hype, and at the beginning, things didn't look so promising. In Week 1 at Kansas City, Henry got just 13 carries and gained just 46 yards as Baltimore lost by a touchdown to the reigning Super Bowl champs. But in Week 2, he turned it around with 84 yards and a touchdown against the Raiders. Week 3, though, was Henry's breakout as he had 151 yards and two touchdowns as the Ravens defeated the Cowboys on the road. That's the same Cowboys team that turned down an opportunity to sign Henry in the offseason. Dallas owner/GM Jerry Jones was still a little sensitive about that decision.
In Week 4, it was clear that Derrick Henry is an alien because somehow, at 30 years old, he still hadn't lost a step. In a "Sunday Night Football" game against the Bills, he broke the game open right away with an 87-yard touchdown run and finished the game with 199 yards as Baltimore posted a blowout victory. He has only continued this insane pace as the season has gone on: 132 yards and two touchdowns against Washington in Week 6, 169 yards against Tampa in Week 7, another 106 yards and two scores against Denver in Week 9. I mean, the numbers don't even make sense for a back at his age. With how he's running, it would be no surprise if he has another 2,000-yard season.
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Long Live the King
Derrick Henry's legacy is cemented. Based on his résumé at every level, he's one of the most accomplished running backs ever, and the fact that he's seemingly still in his prime at 30 is simply not human. So here's to many more stiff arms into the dirt and house calls, leaving defenders in the dust. Long live the king!