Winner: Derrick Henry
Derrick Henry is incredibly frustrating at times because despite all his size and speed, he can get taken down on first contact fairly easily. That is why I have always said that the Titans should find ways to get him on the edge with sweeps or screens, but ultimately those ideas were scoffed at because “that is what Dion Lewis is for”.
Fast forward to day and Henry looked exactly like I described, slow starting but almost impossible to beat with a head of steam.
On 20 touches (19 rushes and a reception) Henry finished with 159 yards and two touchdowns.
As Arthur Smith continues to figure out exactly how to get Henry comfortable and how to make this offense work at their highest level, feeding Henry without forcing the ball to him is going to be key.
Imagine if Smith unlocks the perfect recipe for Henry by Week 5 and the Titans get back Taylor Lewan to only make things better. It is very interesting to think about, but instead of thinking about the future we should all just respect what he is doing right now.
Over the last 5 games, Derrick Henry has 765 receiving and rushing yards, as well as 9 combined TDs. That is astonishing and if you take that average and extrapolate it into a 16 game season, you are talking about 2,448 combined yards and 29 touchdowns.
Obviously that won’t happen, but that is the pace that he is playing at right now.