My Two Cents: Derrick Henry is Right, Elite Running Backs Still Have Value

A lot of teams around the NFL don't value running backs much, but that's certainly not the case with the Tennessee Titans, who show a lot of love to star Derrick Henry. Elite backs do matter, and that's certainly true in Nashville, from the top of the organization to the bottom.

NASHVILLE — A dime a dozen. That's the catch-phrase these days when NFL people talk about the running back position.

Some dimes, though, are shinier than others. But what running backs like Saquon Barkley and Josh Jacobs and Dalvin Cook and Jonathan Taylor and others are learning these days is that no matter how shiny that dime is, it's still only worth 10 cents.

By its nature, football is the ultimate team game. It takes 22 guys to play well on Sundays — 24 if you want to talk kickers and punters, and we will for the sake of this argument. And why? Because kickers even make more than running backs these days.

The best running back in the game, Derrick Henry, is right here in Nashville. He is ''under contract,'' as Titans coach Mike Vrabel often reminds us. Henry has gained more yards (7,101) than anyone since 2018. He is, without question, the Titans' most valuable player.

The way his fellow running backs are being treated around the NFL these days, Henry wonders why we even have running backs any more.

At this point , just take the RB position out the game then . The ones that want to be great & work as hard as they can to give their all to an organization , just seems like it don’t even matter . I’m with every RB that’s fighting to get what they deserve . https://t.co/OgvBWZCKvn

— Derrick Henry  (@KingHenry_2) July 17, 2023

Henry has a valid point. There are certain teams that have been built around a running game. The Titans are certainly one of them, having six straight winning seasons before last year primarily by handing the ball to Henry.

They may be in the minority in the NFL these days, but the Titans still very much prioritize running the ball with Henry, and others.

''It's laughable, especially when you're sitting in our running backs room with Derrick right there,'' new Titans running backs coach James Outten said. "When those conversations come up about elite backs not having any value any more, Derrick just smiles. It's a cool conversation to have with him. He's been great with me one-on-one. 

"He truly believes in his own value. He's knows. I know. Hell, we all know. We know if we have success running the ball here, then we're going to have success when it comes to winning games.''

Outten, who's coached at Green Bay and Denver before and has coordinated offenses, said that the Titans' franchise-wide buy-in to Henry and the running game is what attracted him to the job in the first place. 

If you're going to coach running backs, this is the place to be. 

''Consistently tying the run game with the pass game is really important, and then using different kind of formation in big. The balance is huge. You always have to run the ball to set up the pass, because you have to get those (defenders) antsy. We know how important running the ball is here. It was one of the main reasons I came here, to know how important it is to Mike, and it's exciting.''

Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry (22) stretches during training camp practice on Aug. 1, in Nashville, Tenn. (Mark Zaleski/USA TODAY Sports)

Henry has been paid well during his time with the Titans. The former Alabama great, who will turn 30 in January in the final week of the regular season, signed a four-year, $50-million contract in 2020. He's in the final year of that deal now, $12.5 mill per, and that's going to be a big decision down the road. 

The Titans and Henry will have to work that out in the offseason. Henry said it's a non-issue right now and he's fine in waiting to get a new deal — in some kind of financial package — this winter.

Other backs around the league are the current poster boys for getting screwed. The New York Giants and Las Vegas Raiders placed franchise tags on Barkley and Jacobs, and then refused to agree to long-term deals with both of them. Barkley is the Giants' best player, by far, and it's probably safe to say the same applies for Jacobs, too. Barkley had to cave and sign a one-year deal because he knew he had no other otions.

It wasn't a good look.

It's happening at a lot of places.

The Minnesota Vikings simply released Cook instead of paying him. And he's been their best player, too. He's still looking for a job.

Barkley, the former Penn State star, rushed for a career-high 1,312 yards last year and scored 10 touchdowns, leading the Giants to the playoffs for the first time in six years. He catches passes too — 338 yards' worth —and played a full season.

But Barkley and the Giants couldn't put together a long-term deal. Barkley signed, but Jacobs took another approach — an airplane out of town — and he apparently has no interest in returning to Vegas without a multi-year deal. His holdout could very well last a long time because the Raiders — possibly the one NFL franchise that seems to always shoot itself in the foot — won't be giving him a big deal.

They'd rather go 4-13 and move on to the next cheap guy. Jacobs seems locked in to fight for the cause — the running backs' cause — and get paid what he deserves.

Therein lies the problem, though. Gone are the days when Walter Payton, Emmitt Smith and Barry Sanders were the most important players in the league. It's a quarterback-driven game now, and they get all the money. 

Henry, I'd like to think, is fairly paid at $12.5 million, even as the best in the game. But he's on a team with Ryan Tannehill as his quarterback, and he's not ranked in the top half of the league's throwers. Still, he's making $27 million this year and has a $36 million cap hit.

The Giants had a chance to take care of all of this the right way. They have a quarterback, Daniel Jones, who flat-out stunk for three years before playing well enough in 2022. His reward? A new four-year deal worth $160 million. 

I know the deal. You need a good quarterback to succeed in this league, and Jones, at long last, finally had some leverage. But what the Giants should have done was work on those Jones and Barkley deals together. They should have found a few more million for Barkley in the Jones deal. Even Jones knows he's nothing without Barkley.

And cap space clearly wasn't an issue for the Giants, because after signing Barkley, then inked left tackle Andrew Thomas to a five-year, $117.5 million deal.

Of all teams, it's the Kansas City Chiefs who doled out the blueprint for running back irrelevancy last year. Sure, they have the game's best quarterback in Patrick Mahomes and probably the best head coach too, in Andy Reid. They had a former first-round pick at running back in Clyde Edwards-Helaire, but won a title last year with seventh-round pick Isiah Pacheco being the lead back.

A dime a dozen, right?

Titans running back Derrick Henry (22) runs with his daughter Valentina on the field after practice on July 31 in Nashville. (Mark Zaleski/USA TODAY Sports)

The top running backs around the league all got together on a Zoom call last month, trying to kick around ideas on how to make all of this better. Henry was front and center on that call. But making things better isn't going to be an easy thing.

Unlike any other professional sport, NFL owners still have the upper hand when it comes to doling out money. They can simply say no, and often do, and they move on from great players often. There's also the issue of the salary cap, which locks in what they can spend. It's always the first point in the argument, that there's simply no room to overspend.

Jacobs will hold out, but the only one who loses money on that deal will be Jacobs. The Raiders won't cave because they don't care if they win or lose. The millions will continue to flow in anyway, and they are still the kings in their new hometown.

The mess with Indianapolis' Jonathan Taylor is completely out of control, because Colts owner Jim Irsay has no filter on his mouth and he's said a lot of stupid things the last few weeks. Taylor is in the final year of his rookie contract, and he's rushed for more than 3,800 yards in his first three seasons. He wants a new deal — the first one was for four years but only $7.8 million — and he wants big bucks now. 

Are the Colts going to give it to him? It's highly unlikely. What are Taylor's options? Well, he has a good one. He had ankle surgery in January, and isn't ready to practice. The Colts put him on the physically unable to perform list. If he wanted to slow-roll his return, he can do it, just to make a statement. He's not even at Colts' camp anymore, working on his rehab away from the team.

Taylor isn't making much this year, so maybe it's a good time to play his one card — his availability — and miss some or all of this season. 

Is it all coming to this? It might be. The running backs collective will need to fight back at some point. Things like this could be the only thing that works.

I grew up in Chicago with Gale Sayers and Walter Payton. I know what great running backs look like. There are great running backs these days, too, and they deserve fair pay when they are a team's most important player.

Sure, it's a different time. Running backs, certainly, have become devalued. Not here in Nashville, of course, because Henry still matters very much. 

But a lot of them still matter. We'll soon find out how much.