Can Less Mean More for Henry?

The two-time NFL rushing champion typically gets better when his attempts pile up within a game.

NASHVILLE – Call it the Derrick Dilemma.

A question that has popped up regularly with regard to Derrick Henry over the past few seasons seems even more pertinent this year: Is it time for the Tennessee Titans to trim the workload of their workhorse running back?

Before you answer that question, consider another: Would the Titans get the best Henry if they do cut back on his carries?

The two-time NFL rushing champion has piled up an incredible 900 regular-season carries over the past three years, despite missing nine games due to injury in 2021. He averaged 20.2 carries per game in 2019, 23.6 carries per game in 2020 and a whopping 27.4 in the first eight games of 2021.

The broken foot Henry sustained last season was the first significant injury of his six-year career. Though he returned for Tennessee's playoff loss to Cincinnati, the injury was a reminder that even the 28-year-old is mortal. Might that lead the Titans to tweak their Henry-centric offensive approach a bit in 2022, either by passing more frequently or by sharing the carries more with backs like rookie Hassan Haskins?

What has to be considered – if the Titans were to reduce Henry’s carries – is that part of his effectiveness stems from an ability to pound away on a defense all game with his 6-foot-3, 247-pound frame, often times wearing down his opponents and paving the way for big runs.

Here’s some evidence:

• Since 2017, Henry leads the league in fourth-quarter rushing by a margin of nearly 500 yards. He’s carried 337 times in the fourth quarter over those five years, totaling 1,813 yards (5.4-yard average) and 16 touchdowns.

• Henry has rushed for an eye-opening 11 touchdowns of 50 yards or more in his career. Eight of those have taken place in the second half – four each in the third and fourth quarters.

• On carries 1-10 in his career, Henry has averaged 4.3 yards per attempt. Then things jump as the game progresses. Henry has averaged 5.7 yards per attempt on carries 11-20, and 4.8 yards per attempt on carries 21-30. On the 18 attempts he’s carried in the 31 or higher range, Henry has averaged 7.3 yards.

A look at how Derrick Henry has picked up steam as games have progressed throughout his career: 

Carries	Att.	Yards	Avg.	Longest	TD
1-5	414	1,650	4.0	76	11
6-10	355	1,674	4.7	99	15
11-15	264	1,541	5.8	75	14
16-20	186	1,043	5.6	94	13
21-25	107	527	4.9	60	7
26-30	57	231	4.1	29	4
31-plus	18	131	7.3	53	1

It’s hard to imagine the offense changing radically from the ground-and-pound approach we’ve seen in recent years, especially considering the team’s the passing game might endure some early struggles with new receivers.

Offensive coordinator Todd Downing was asked, in fact, whether the return of a healthy Henry would also mean the return of an offense that ran through the former Heisman Trophy winner.

“I remember having a discussion circling around (changing the offensive approach) when Derrick unfortunately got injured last year,” Downing said. “Our identity doesn’t change just because of who’s in the game. We play a certain brand of football here and I think (Titans coach Mike Vrabel) does an awesome job of painting a vision of what it takes to win football games. So having Derrick is obviously a great luxury. But that doesn’t change who we are or how we play. We’re going to figure out that process week by week and what it takes to win games in the fall.”

Henry, meanwhile, sounds as if he’s ready and willing to pound away once more. If there was a silver lining to last year’s injury, it may only have served to further motivate the NFL’s 2020 Offensive Player of the Year.

“I’ve been training like crazy and doing everything I can to get my body right,” Henry said during the team’s minicamp. “I’ve just been working … I felt good (in the playoff loss), but I didn’t play well enough. There’s no excuse. I got to be better and I should have been better. But I feel good now.”