Derrick Henry not playing in Tennessee Titans 3rd preseason game

Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry is not playing in the team’s third preseason game on Sunday night.

We hoped to get our first look at Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry in Preseason Week 3, but the Alabama product will not play against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night.

Jim Wyatt of Titans Online has the latest on Henry’s status.

Henry suffered a strained calf muscle on the very first day of Titans training camp and missed quite a bit of time, but he returned to practice this past week and slowly worked his way back to full participation.

We would have liked to see him play in the Titans’ third preseason game just to seal the deal that he has fully recovered from his calf injury, but obviously that won’t happen.

Don’t panic

Now, that doesn’t mean Henry is still hurting. With rain falling at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, the Titans likely opted to keep Henry out to avoid him re-injuring himself in what will be slick conditions.

As a result of said conditions, the Titans might opt to pull all of their starters a bit earlier than originally planned. Usually, starters get the most reps of the preseason in the third game before sitting out the fourth entirely, which is why it’s called the dress rehearsal.

However, the amount of snaps starters can see in the third preseason game can differ based on what the weather conditions are.

With Henry not available for the dress rehearsal, it’s likely he’ll start the season without any preseason reps. There’s no way the Titans risk injury to what is presumed to be their workhorse back in 2019 during the fourth and final preseason contest.

We’ll just have to wait until Week 1 of the regular season when Henry and the Titans take on the Cleveland Browns on September 8th.