Ravens rookie offensive coordinator Declan Doyle would not back away from the potential for Derrick Henry to carry the ball 300 times or more this season, despite him being 32-years-old and despite him having never hit that mark in three straight seasons in his Hall of Fame.
Turns out, there was every reason to take him at his word.
Henry is being asked to do, already, things no running back his age has done since the NFL/AFL merger through five weeks of a season, and there is not reason to expect that to change much anytime soon. The Ravens have had to navigate through a new offensive line every week and huge issues at center (including moving rookie guard Vega Ioane there), and they could very well be without two-time MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson again this week, and it’s been a tough slow on the ground this season in ways Henry never experienced previously in Baltimore, but he is nothing if not a workhorse.
And despite this unprecedented load – as we will detail below – Henry still appeared to be one of the freshest and more impactful players Sunday night as the Ravens produced a game-winning, seven-minute drive in overtime, with backup Snoop Huntley at QB, during which Henry went over 100 yards and had the ball in his hands 25 more times and was at his best putting the game away.
“Obviously, we wanted to score, but I think having that drive was great for us to be able to keep the momentum going, keep the drive going, letting the clock run down, and just keeping that energy,” Henry said after the gutsy win. “I feel like guys were just focused on another level, and great execution by every single body on offense. The O-line - hell of a job. They did a great job in the run game."
Henry is not having his most explosive season, and he is getting hit behind the line of scrimmage more than ever before as a Raven as part of the experimentation up front, but he remains as integral as ever to this offense and to keep a defense suffering from its share of issues off the field. And no Ravens coach has ever ridden him harder through the first five weeks of a season. And perhaps he could use more help from a blocking standpoint, too).
What he’s taking on already is simply historic.
Age is Just A Number
Henry’s 113 carries through the first five games are the most in NFL history by a running back in his age 32 season. The great Walter Payton is second at 110, Curtis Martin has 105 at this point in that season and Otis Anderson (98) and Emmitt Smith (87) are the only others to carry the ball more than 80 times at that age at this point in the season.
Henry leads them with seven touchdowns through five weeks, while his 4.2 yards/carry is basically league average (Payton was at 4.6 at this point, while Ricky Williams, the only age 32 back since the merger to average over. 4.5/carry in that season, had run just 61 times through Week 5 (but at a robust 5.2/carry). We studied 55 years of age 32 running back data this offseason and the general portrait it painted was quite bleak – but Henry has long been a unicorn and if he gets more consistent run blocking there is reason to believe some of his efficiencies could spike.
Henry’s 476 yards are 30 behind “Sweetness” – the Bears legend who proved incredibly durable and consistent – for the most ever by an age 32 RB through five weeks. When Doyle refused to back away from lofty projection in terms of touches for Henry, he was not foolin around.
“He is a special talent,” Doyle said of Henry this summer. “There are not many guys in the league who can do what he does. The vision for him in the offense is an immense role. Obviously, I don't want to put a number on the amount of [carries], because obviously, as you look at every single week, every week is different. You want to be able to deploy things in different ways, and at the same point in time, he's going to have a pretty large workload.”
Doing More Than Ever Before In Baltimore
Only once previously in his career has Henry run the ball this much through the first five games, and that was in 2001 in Tennessee (142). Think about how the Titans ran their offense through him, and only once did he eclipse this 113 carry mark this soon.
Last year, Henry had just 64 rushes at this point in the season, and the year before he had 95. He’s essentially played one more game to this point than either of those two years at mid-October. In those seasons he was averaging 5.0 and 6.0 per carry to this point, so the yards have been tougher to come by now (0.99 yards before contact this season, 1.77 at this point last year and 2.66 in 2024).
Henry also already has eight catches for 62 yards and a touchdown; he’s never had more than 15 catches in a season as a Raven.
Unprecedented Projections
So, um, what exactly would it look like if Henry maintained this pace for the full season? Well, it would be painful, that’s for sure.
He is averaging 22.6 rushes per game, with would yield 384 carries if he kept it up. I did mention he’s never run 300 times in three straight years didn’t I? The 384 carries would surpass anything he’s ever done before. That 2021 season – the only time with more carries through five weeks – was cut short due to injury and he only played eight games.
Henry’s never carried more than 325 in a season in Baltimore and 378 is his career high (2000), the year he went over 2000 rushing yards. Perhaps that will truly be put to the test.
Subscribe To "The Daily Flock" On YouTube For Elite Ravens Content And Conversations:
Add us as a preferred source on Google