The Tennessee Titans are the talk of the NFL landscape right now and the driving force of their playoff success has been the indestructible Derrick Henry, dubbed “King Henry” as of late. He has even been spotted leaving the Titans last game sporting a magnificent crown. In a league growing ever more accustomed to the spread offence and minimizing the impact a single running back can have, how has Derrick Henry been this successful as the focal point of a playoff football team?
It certainly helps that at 6’3”and 238 pounds, Henry is physically just a bigger and more intimidating figure than most of his running back contemporaries. Look at this photo of Henry next to current Baltimore Ravens running back Mark Ingram for context. Another top running back of the 2019 regular season, Christian McCaffrey, is a full 4 inches shorter than Henry and 35 pounds lighter. Yet Henry combats his considerable size with speed comparable to the other top runners of the NFL. For instance, according to NFL.com, while McCaffrey runs an impressive 40 yard dash at 4.48 seconds, Henry is not a tenth of a second slower, running his in just 4.54 seconds.
Henry also carries the confidence of a player who has simply been one of the best to play at every single level of the game. In the greater football culture, Henry has been a household name since his time as the Alabama Crimson tide’s star running back. But long before his Heisman trophy collegiate accolades were collected, Derrick was crushing any and all competition put before him at the high school level.
Playing for Yulee High School in Florida, Henry was a dominant force as a youngster and by all accounts seems to have been such a wrecking ball that he is now mythicized by those who saw and played him. Per the Washington Post, “Henry set the national high school football rushing record with 12,124 career yards, including 4,260 yards and 55 touchdowns during his senior season in 2012, which both stand as state records.” Eventually, Henry was recognized amongst his peers as 5 star recruit for the class of 2013 by ESPN.
As a top prospect, Henry had the pick of the litter when it came to selecting a university football team to grace his talents with. The call of Nick Saban’s NCAA championship dynasty Alabama was obviously too good to pass up although now part of a committee of running backs on the premier team of all college football. According to Heisman.com Henry was able to tally 382 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns as a freshman. As time progressed so did Henry’s level of production. In his sophomore year, Henry accounted for 990 rushing yards and 11 rushing touchdowns.
During Henry’s Heisman winning Junior season of college, the King exploded for an absurd 1,986 rushing yards and 23 rushing touchdowns, breaking Herschel Walker’s single-season SEC conference rushing record along the way. He would win the Heisman trophy over his future the same person who would be contending for professional rushing records in the near future, Christian McCaffrey. Henry would also win the 2015 College Football National Championship for Alabama in 2015 before declaring for the NFL draft and being selected by the Tennessee Titans in the following spring.
When Derrick joined the Titans organization, they had an established running back in DeMarco Murray that Henry found himself playing in a supporting role too. Over the following seasons, Henry slowly gained respect and carries in the running back committee of Murray and in later seasons Dion Lewis. 2018 saw Henry break 1,000 yards rushing for the first time.
2019 began as a turbulent season for the Titans until changeover at the Quarterback position (moving from longtime starter Marcus Mariota to former Dolphins QB Ryan Tannehill) saw the offense open up and take over games late in the season. The 2019 regular season has seen Henry amass professional career highs in rushing yards (1,540), rushing touchdowns (15) and yards per carry (5.1).
The Titans have been the playoff darlings in 2019. Coming into the postseason first off a do or die regular-season finale against the Houston Texans for a playoff spot, the Titans have successfully dethroned the defending Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots in the wild card game and taken down the regular-season juggernaut Baltimore Ravens, who had been led by likely 2019 NFL MVP Lamar Jackson.
There is a daunting challenge in front of the Titans in the AFC Championship game as they will be facing the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs are led by possibly the most physically talented quarterback in NFL history, and last years’ league MVP, Patrick Mahomes. The Chiefs are coming off of a historic comeback effort of the Houston Texans in which Kansas City won overcame a 24 – 0 first-half deficit and after a 28 point second quarter defeated the Texans 51 – 31.
Mahomes seems poised to continue with the momentum gained in that offensive downpour as he has destructive receiving weapons in wide receivers Tyreek Hill and Sammy Watkins as well as tight end Travis Kelce. Henry won’t be alone on the offensive side of the ball for the Titans, but he likely will be asked to carry the load in response to whatever points Kansas City is able to put on the board. Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill, while being awarded both comeback player of the year and most improved player of the year trophies for 2019, has not been putting up enormous passing yards this postseason. Tannehill threw for just 88 yards in the wildcard round against the Patriots and even fewer in the divisional round, tossing just 77 passing yards against the Ravens. Meanwhile, King Henry has rushed for over 180 yards in the last three games, a feat never before accomplished. Can he do it again?