John Harbaugh and the Baltimore Ravens tried to acquire running back Derrick Henry from the Tennessee Titans at the trade deadline and failed.
Well, they finally landed their man in free agency, and Harbaugh is pumped to have Henry at his disposal offensively, lauding his versatility.
“We’ll, that’s just it. People talk about attacking the full width of the field, especially in the run game,” Harbaugh said, via Kevin Patra of NFL media. “You could do it in the pass game too or extend some runs or call them screens and things like that. These are all things Lamar [Jackson] is so good at. Lamar does it by throwing the ball. He could do it by reading the defense and keeping it or going a different way. We could take the back, and Lamar could go vertical. We’ve got a lot of different things that we like to do. So, A gap, B gap, C gap, D gap, alley, or all the way to the sideline, you want to attack a defense like that, right? That’s important in the run game, and Derrick Henry can attack every single one of those areas just as well. He could come downhill, there’s no doubt about it. He’s going to get after that A gap and he’s going to make people defend to force the defense to tuck in their real nice.”
The last time the Ravens had a Pro Bowl-caliber rusher in their backfield was in 2019, when Mark Ingram totaled 1,018 yards and 10 touchdowns while averaging five yards per carry.
Now, Baltimore may get a taste of that type of production again, as Henry is coming off of a 2023 campaign in which he registered 1,167 yards and 12 scores on the ground. He logged a pedestrian 4.2 yards per attempt, but perhaps Henry will be more efficient in the Ravens’ offense.
“Well, it’s a big buzz, big guy and a big player,” Harbaugh said. “He has a great personality and loves football. We played against him all those years. When you play against a guy, you earn respect for a guy, and we’ve had our hands full trying to stop him. So, it kind of speaks to us. How we want to play and approach the game, so I’m fired up to have him.”
Henry spent the first eight years of his career with the Titans, making four trips to the Pro Bowl while also earning a First-Team All-Pro selection.
The 30-year-old led the NFL in rushing and rushing touchdowns back-to-back campaigns in 2019 and 2020, topping out at 2,027 yards and 17 scores in the latter season.
Derrick Henry may no longer be the same elite halfback he was back then, but he remains a very viable threat and should certainly form a rather impressive duo with Jackson in 2024.
You can understand why John Harbaugh is so excited.
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