The Baltimore Ravens lost the AFC Championship Game to the Kansas City Chiefs last season, and all Derrick Henry could do was sit and watch and wonder how he could have made a difference. At the time, of course, he was still a Tennessee Titan—but just barely.
While the Ravens signed Henry as an unrestricted free agent this offseason, they nearly traded for him last year. Baltimore suffered multiple running back injuries last season to J.K. Dobbins and Keaton Mitchell. Still, one wonders if having Henry then might have changed things—one, in this case, being Henry himself.
“Hell yes”, Henry said yesterday when a reporter asked him while watching the Ravens lose to the Chiefs if he was thinking about having nearly gone there in a trade, via the team’s website. “I was wishing I could suit up that day watching that game”.
A 2016 second-round pick, Derrick Henry has 9,502 career rushing yards on 2,030 attempts. His 90 career rushing touchdowns are tied for 13th all-time, and he can easily crack the top 10 this year. A four-time All-Pro, he won the Offensive Player of the Year Award in 2020, rushing for 2,027 yards that season. Since then, he has 3,643 rushing yards with 35 touchdowns in 41 games played.
The Chiefs will host the Ravens Thursday in the season opener as the defending Super Bowl champions. Henry did not play during the preseason, so this will be our first true look at him in the Ravens’ offense. He is out to prove that he has more than a little something left in the tank at age 30. That might not sound very advanced in years, but the professional lives of running backs are nasty, brutish, and short.
Henry experienced four postseasons during his eight years in Tennessee. They reached the conference finals in 2019 after beating the Ravens—losing to the Chiefs. As if he didn’t need enough reason to want to beat the Chiefs, he has plenty in reserve.
“Yes, now it’s my turn, so [I have] to take advantage of it”, Henry said of his role in helping the Ravens beat Kansas City. “It’s going to be a hell of a game. The Chiefs are always tough. They’re solid on all three [phases], so we’ve got to be locked in this week to be able to execute on Thursday”.
While the Ravens did not put Derrick Henry through preseason work, he often got the better of his defensive teammates. The team hopes that giving Lamar Jackson a top-shelf threat in the run game will get them over the hump.
The Ravens are 2-5 in the postseason since drafting Jackson in 2018, though they lost one game without him. His personal record is 2-4, scoring his second win and fourth loss in 2023. After dominating the Houston Texans in the opening round, 34-10, they fell to the Chiefs, 17-10, as Henry and the rest of us watched.
