Why you can’t do both.
In an ideal world, the Titans run Derrick Henry and then the next play, run play action off of that look and attack the aggressive run defense with a pass over the top.
However, that can’t work consistently for one specific reason: Derrick Henry’s ability to catch a football ranges from inconsistent to bad.
He just isn’t a natural pass catcher and for all of his positive traits, that is just one skill that Henry doesn’t have. Every time you throw the ball to Henry you have a better chance for that ball to go straight up in the air and get picked or for it fall to the ground, than you do for him catching the pass.
Even when he pass protects you have to understand that one of the key elements in play action is getting the linebackers to bite on the run and then hitting the zone they vacated because they are out of position.
The problem is that when Henry shows run, defenses know that he is either going to run the ball or go into pass protection so no one really gets fooled.
Let’s say Henry is playing the Titans defense. If I am calling that defense, my goal is to load up the intermediate zone with three or four players. When the ball is snapped depending on where Henry lines up, a specific linebacker is assigned to treat it as a run and then if it is a play action, his job changes from run-fit to blitz.
Now instead of adding a body to your pass protection and pulling the linebackers out of place, you add a blitzer and take away one of your potential check downs.
That fact is why Dion Lewis gets on the field more than Derrick Henry, because he has no way to consistently scare the defense with versatility.