Despite the warning signs, Derrick Henry is worth every penny of his new deal.
When Derrick Henry signed his fresh new long term deal, one that will keep him in Tennessee for the next four seasons, he didn’t just become the poster child for the Titans organization– he became the main figure for what people outside of Nashville will call bad business.
There are a handful of unwritten rules when it comes to NFL roster-building. Always draft player talent before positional need (even if it doesn’t make sense), be wary of the quarterback with tiny hands, and never give a running back a big-money contract after their rookie deal.
These are the laws of the NFL land that teams have agreed on, and the Tennessee Titans just broke the golden rule to the tune of 50 million dollars to their star-player, running back Derrick Henry. And when you break one of these immutable laws, you’re bound to get the authorities calling for your head, and right now they’re coming for the Titans.
Colin Cowherd of Fox Sports denounced the contract on his radio show, Jon Ledyard took to Twitter to add fuel to the “don’t pay running backs” fire, and Geoff Schwartz has planted his flag firmly in the “Anyone But Tennessee” battleground.
The experts have given their takes, and their definitive response to Henry’s payday has been disapproval. Do not pay running backs. And to their credit, in general, they have been right about the curse of high value running back contracts.
The Los Angeles Rams signed Todd Gurley to a massive four year, $60 million deal after an All-Pro 2018 season. Two years later, and Gurley now finds himself looking for redemption in Atlanta after a down 2019 season.
A similar story for former Arizona Cardinals’ running back David Johnson, who got a three-year deal worth nearly $40 million from Arizona one year after missing nearly an entire season with a lingering wrist injury. Now with the Houston Texans, Johnson hasn’t reached 1,000-yards rushing since 2016 and his biggest claim to fame might end up being that he was the “big get” that the Texans receivied in one of the most lopsided trades in NFL history.
The warning signs are everywhere, even in successful running backs like the Cowboys’ Ezekiel Elliott and the Panthers’ Christian McCaffrey. Two teams with two elite running backs making big money, but two teams that missed the playoffs last season.
But Derrick Henry doesn’t play for the Panthers or the Cowboys, and Derrick Henry isn’t built in the same way as Gurley or Johnson.
Those teams may have struggled to win with their high-priced running backs, and a few of those running backs may have struggled to find the same success in their careers that earned them those contracts in the first place, but Derrick Henry is different. Derrick Henry is the perfect athlete in the perfect situation with the Tennessee Titans, and their newly-extended marriage could bring with it four years of dominance.
Why Henry is an exception
The common issue with paying running backs relates to their value. The teams who like to throw the ball, obviously, are less reliant on their running game– making running backs not named Christian McCaffrey increasingly obsolete in schemes that don’t want to lean on their ground game.
And for the teams that do feature a strong rushing attack, teams like the Ravens and the 49ers, do so with a wide cast of ball carriers. The days of the bell-cow running back are mostly gone, so teams that choose to pay one player that level of bell-cow money are typically making a mistake. But the one running back, ground and pound offensive attack is alive and well in Tennessee. And contrary to popular belief, the one running back, ground and pound offensive attack has been working.
Derrick Henry didn’t get to the NFL’s 2019 rushing crown by mistake. He hasn’t run for a combined 28 touchdowns in two seasons by accident, and those two dominant performances against two of the NFL’s best defenses in the playoffs weren’t a fluke. Henry put those numbers up because he’s worth the $50 million that he’s now due. And with marked improvement in each of his four professional seasons, Henry hasn’t shown a single sign that he’s due to regress past the point of elite.
Where Todd Gurley and David Johnson both had major injury concerns prior to their contract extensions, Henry has none. Where the Cowboys and Panthers have struggled to win with their high-value running backs, Tennessee is fresh off the heels of an AFC Championship appearance. Henry doesn’t show signs of stopping, and his team was one of the final four in the league last year– in large part due to Henry’s effect on the offense, both in the running game as well as the passing attack.
The notion that Derrick Henry doesn’t have an impact on the Titans passing game is due for some debunking. Yes, Henry doesn’t have many catches to his name, but the running back lifts the passing offense to one of the NFL’s best with just the threat of his skill as a ball-carrier.
Derrick Henry’s hidden value
Removing the six-game early-season stretch with Marcus Mariota running the Tennessee offense, the Titans put together one of the NFL’s most efficient and effective passing offenses in the entire league. That offense, led by Ryan Tannehill, was helped tremendously with the high volume of stacked boxes they faced from the defense and the heavy lean they had towards play action– all due to Henry’s brilliance in the running game over the past two seasons.
With the odds tipped towards Tannehill’s favor, the veteran quarterback was able to put together a career-renaissance. The highest completion percentage of his career, the highest passer rating of his career, all on the most yards per attempt of his career.
Not to say that Tannehill’s success was due entirely to Henry, but rather, their partnership was a mutually beneficial one– leading to a borderline unstoppable offense that had five 30+ point performances in the final eight weeks of the season and a 7-3 record in the final ten games.
And Henry is coming back for more, along with Tannehill, a partnership responsible for beating the Chiefs, Ravens, Patriots, and Texans. They’re battle-tested and came out the other side with proven success. Henry isn’t just committing to an offense that caters to his skill set for the next four seasons, he’s committing to an offense that allows him to elevate the pieces around him to heights that franchise hasn’t seen in over a decade.
The craziest part of all of this is, Derrick Henry just keeps getting better. Somehow, someway, Henry has been an effective bell-cow with nothing in his individual background to show that he’ll be stopping anytime soon. And if the regression does come during his new extension, rookie running back Darrynton Evans will be waiting in the wings to take the pressure off.
But if nothing else, Henry has earned the benefit of the world not rushing him out the door. A dominant force capable of elevating an entire team should be celebrated. So, here’s to Derrick Henry, the anomaly. Don’t pay running backs, sure. But give Derrick Henry whatever he wants.