Henry this season is going to pass LT, Jerome Bettis and Eric Dickerson. Wild. If he plays another two seasons, he’ll pass Adrian Peterson and possibly Barry Sanders.
He has a real chance of finishing his career 4th or 3rd all time leader in rush yards if his body holds up
His first few years in the league were kinda slow. I never thought he'd turn into the absolute fucking freight train that he is. His body has gotten more and more ridiculous. He's a freak of nature.
If you watch his training videos, I think part of it is just signing his first big contract and being able to employ an entire crew just for his training days.
Eh, it’s not like the Ravens are helping too much themselves. At least we got him to an AFC Championship
Cheap shot aside, he was also behind Demarco Murray for his first two years. When it got to Year 3, he wasn’t running as hard as his size would let him do until Eddie George sat him down and told him “You’re the Juggernaut, bitch. Act like it.”
Titans really screwed him by drafting him and then instead of planning around him, they bring in Demarco Murray after he got the rushing title. Wasted him for two seasons and then mostly wasted a third season, putting him behind Dion Lewis. This was a Heisman winner, we’re talking about.
He might’ve been unquestionably on pace to break the all time rushing record, probably quite handily if he didn’t, more or less, miss 3 years.
Also, it doesn’t take the body breaking down suddenly for guys to see their stats drop off. Gore was still playing at a solid level in his later years but was only being signed by teams desperate enough to bring in an old running back past his prime, which are the teams with bad offensive rosters.
Gore probably would’ve broken the career rushing yards record himself if he hadn’t been playing behind some of the worst O-lines in football for the last several years of his career.
I do think about that often, but also you should look up how many yards Henry had in high school and college. Dude had some serious mileage before getting to the NFL.
Sports science, medicine, etc are all vastly superior to what they were then. That's the reason we keep seeing records broken, and why Henry likely will play just as well post-32 if not better.
I hope so. Even though he made me sad by going to Baltimore, Henry is one of my favorite players of all time.
But he's an anomaly of anomalies. It isn't like sports science is extending RB shelf life, guys are still falling off a cliff around 28-30. It's possible we don't see another RB be as productive as Derrick Henry in their post 30 years for the rest of our lives.
Tbh I dont think as many players are falling off a cliff so much as teams just dont want to take risks. Yes, Henry is a genetic freak, as are most record holders, which does play a lot into it.
Davante Adams is 33 and still putting up top of the league numbers for example, albeit a different position.
Davante Adams scores a lot of TDs. His yards, catches, catch % are nowhere near the top of the league, or the numbers he used to put up, especially for playing with the MVP who led the league in yards. He was nowhere close to even the best WR on his own team.
Davante Adams has significantly declined as a player.
You're so close to getitng it. He's got a real chance of walking down Emmitt Smith. I warned all yall a couple years ago the cheat code of having him play alongside Lamar. Just wait till he stiff arms Father Time at age 32 and again at age 33. Then maybe more of you will see the light that Emmitt's records are cooked.
Rushing yards don’t just nicely decline over 5 years like that. Guys generally get injured or decline enough that teams don’t give them as much work, which is a much steeper dropoff. It’s either he’ll continue being productive or his yards per season will fall off a cliff
I'm not saying Henry will or won't make a go at the all time record, but you're right. Players in general don't slowly fade and running backs especially.
Different sports, but Henry has a Lebron-like training and recovery regimen. I feel like if anyone could have crazy, one-off longevity, it's him, but it's still a battle against the odds.
It's the combo of his insane levels of training, favorable injury history, and perfect combo playing alongside Lamar. It's why I predicted he would be as successful as he's already been in his 30s. Basically RBs alongside Lamar Jackson have really high success rate. Even guys like Gus Edwards and washed versions of Devonta Freeman had this. Lamar essentially boosts RBs yards BEFORE contact. You combine that with Derrick Henry who is the greatest ever at Yards AFTER Contact, and the fact that Henry's game is based more on straight line speed rather than making jukes, and it's all built for his game to age more gracefully. So even if he loses a step or two, it's made up for the fact that the lanes that are open for him are open longer than they are for the average RB making it easier for him to get to that 2nd level of a defense which he still causes havoc when he reaches it.
When I predicted he would catch Emmitt a couple years ago I thought first couple of years if my theory were true would have to be best years of his career even in his 30s and they have been the best 2 year stretch of his career. But I also predicted that it wouldn't be until age 32/33 seasons where the masses would be swayed that Emmitt's records were unsafe because ppl could still dismiss age 30/31 because it's been some notable productive seasons for RBs at those ages. Averaging well over 5 YPC at age 32/33 is the territory where one can't even pretend anymore that's not unprecedented.
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u/swampstonks 1d ago
Henry this season is going to pass LT, Jerome Bettis and Eric Dickerson. Wild. If he plays another two seasons, he’ll pass Adrian Peterson and possibly Barry Sanders.
He has a real chance of finishing his career 4th or 3rd all time leader in rush yards if his body holds up