Ravens running back Derrick Henry is averaging 124.7 yards per game, putting him on pace for 2,120 yards. That would break Eric Dickerson’s record of 2,105 yards he set in 1984 for the Rams.
Lamar Jackson, the favorite for MVP, said he believes in Henry.
“It’s there,” Jackson said Wednesday, via Jamison Hensley of ESPN. “I feel like he has a great chance of achieving that. I think he can do it. I believe he can do it.”
Henry has 873 rushing yards, the most in the first seven games since Cowboys running back DeMarco Murray had 913 in 2014. Murray finished with 1,845.
Henry’s career best is 2,027 in 2020, his fifth of eight seasons with the Titans. No player ever has had two career 2,000-yard seasons.
“I don’t really try to think about that too much,” Henry said about Dickerson’s record. “Just focus on me doing my job and being better and better every week. I don’t really try to get into the statistics of things. I focus on the team goals.”
The Cowboys are among the teams that didn’t try to sign Henry in the offseason, a recurring question for Cowboys owner Jerry Jones with his team ranked last in rushing. Henry trains in Dallas in the offseason and had interest in the Cowboys.
Other teams could have been scared off by Henry’s age as he turned 30 in January.
Jones is right: Henry likely wouldn’t have had this type of impact on the Cowboys and probably not many other teams. He is in the right place at the right time.
“I went to the team I was supposed to go to and that I wanted to go to,” Henry said. “I can’t worry about what people say. I do what works for Derrick Henry and I’m a Baltimore Raven. I want to do the best I can to help us win each and every week.”
