Derrick Henry is chasing history as the last of his kind 


Derrick Henry is the NFL’s last great franchise running back 



Something I've been wondering (and some have written about), is Derrick Henry the last of the no doubt about it Hall of Fame running backs? Or is he the last of the old style backs while new inductees will need a new set of standards to be judged on? For example Alvin Kamara has 6779 rushing yards with 4762 yards receiving with 25 TD receptions (while Henry has 1651 yards receiving with 5 TD receptions). Kamara also has no 1000 yard rushing seasons, a traditional benchmark for running backs. Saquon Barkley is probably the closest back in terms of yardage output (7216 and 2378 rushing+receiving with 48 and 14 TDs rushing+receiving). But can Barkley handle the touches necessary to put him into the all time greats?

The next question is, how far will Henry go? The first article mentioned that Henry was on pace for 2000 yards but assumed he would fall off as the year went on only for Henry to put up 1921 yards rushing (both articles linked were written during the previous season; Kamara was mentioned at having 60 career rushing TDs, had no more the rest of the season and was in fact passed by Josh Jacobs with 61). Henry is currently sitting at 11423 rushing yards, good for 19th all time . A pair of modest 1200 rushing seasons would put him 7th all time. In rushing TDs , Henry should pass Payton this year and Peterson and Allen next year.

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Yeah, the article puts too much on rushing TDs alone, and ignores other facts like receiving touchdowns, rushing yards, receiving yards, and while Henry is GREAT, it also leaves out that he's struggled (I believe) in the receiving game.

Not only that, but it mentioned Ezekiel Elliott (74) and Alvin Kamara (60) are the next two active guys in rushing TDs behind Henry when that's factually not true.

Here is the current active rushing TDs leaders
1) Derrick Henry (106)
Ezekiel Elliott (74) (NOT CURRENTLY SIGNED)
2) Josh Allen (65)
3) Josh Jacobs (61)
4a) Alvin Kamara (60)
4b) Joe Mixon (60)
6) James Conner (59)
7) Jalen Hurts (55)
8) Christian McCaffrey (52)
9a) Nick Chubb (51)
9b) Jonathan Taylor (51)
9c) David Montgomery (51)
12) Aaron Jones (50)
13) Saquon Barkley (48)

I wanted to keep going until I got Barkley in there. But the over point being

1) They're totally ignoring the RBs impact in the receiving game.

2) They totally left out RB Jacobs, who is averaging more than 10.17 rushing TDs per season, compared to Henry's 11.78... Jacobs has a chance to potentially be up there too, per season wise.

3) I guess we're ignoring the running QBs. But if we're ignoring everything and just talking about rushing TDs, they should be included.

4) Are they seriously trying to tell me, that players like Josh Jacobs, Nick Chubb, Jonathan Taylor and Saquon Barkley are absolutely no where near Derek Henry and can't be compared to him? Because if so, that's BS!

The biggest difference is that they got stuck on HORRIBLE teams, where Henry (for most of his career) has had one of the better run blocking OLs in front of him, and playing 6 games against a horrible division.


Don't get me wrong, Henry is amazing, and I won't argue if someone wants to say he's the best RB, but to suggest that some of these other guys can't be a similar talent category is nuts.

Chubb got stuck on a HORRIBLE Browns team... and Jacobs (Raiders), Taylor (Colts), Barkley (Giants) got stuck on teams with HORRIBLE OLs and struggling (at best) QBs.

Henry certainly has had a struggling QB at times, but usually he's had one of the best run blocking OLs in the NFL, and a solid defense that gives them a chance to win with grind it out games, so they can stick to running the ball.

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