Ravens HC Makes Shocking Reveal About Derrick Henry

The Baltimore Ravens want to be cautious with their new top running back.

Sep 5, 2024; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry (22) scores a touchdown as Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Leo Chenal (54) attempts the tackle during the first half at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images / Denny Medley-Imagn Images

After months of hype, Derrick Henry's Baltimore Ravens debut felt a bit disappointing.

In Thursday's season opener against the Kansas City Chiefs, Henry rushed for just 46 yards and a touchdown on only 13 carries. It wasn't an awful debut, but in comparison to other players who shined on offense, Henry was uncharacteristically quiet.

That said, it was partially by design. In Monday's press conference, head coach John Harbaugh explained that Henry won't be carrying the extreme workload he did earlier in his career with the Tennessee Titans.

"We didn't bring Derrick [Henry] in here to be the guy that gets the ball 30 times a game," Harbaugh told reporters. "He's done that before. That's really not the plan."

This isn't the first time Harbaugh and the coaching staff have mentioned Henry's reduced workload, but it bears repeating after the opener. Not only is Henry 30 years old, but he's led the NFL in carries in four of the past five seasons (would've been all five if he hadn't gotten injured in 2021). He simply has a lot of of mileage on his body, so he may be better suited to a reduced role now.

However, that's not the main reason for this decision. That would be the Ravens' desire to diversify their offense as much as they reasonably can.

"The plan is Derrick, Lamar, Mark [Andrews], Isaiah [Likely], Zay [Flowers], 'Bate' [Rashod Bateman and] 'Nelly' [Nelson Agholor]. That's kind of the plan in this offense going forward, so I think that evaluation will be best made over the course of the season.

"And I'm very confident, there are going to be games where Derrick is going to go for 100-plus [yards] or more, and you're going to be asking me, 'Why does Zay only have 2 catches?' That's probably going to happen during the course of the season, and that's going to be good for us. That's what we want to be. We want to be unpredictable that way. Where does the game take us as we get into the game?"

Even though Henry averaged just 3.5 yards per carry, Harbaugh was still pleased with the ground game as a whole. Baltimore rushed for 185 yards on the night, though Lamar Jackson accounted for nearly two-thirds of those yards by himself.

"I like the way the run game looked, for the most part, with just the running back run game. There were some plays that I'd like to see be blocked a little better, but other plays that were blocked really well, and then we rushed for 185 yards overall, and a lot of that is Lamar [Jackson], but that's the formula. The formula is all the guys together. It's not just the one guy.

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