Jamison Hensley, ESPN Workers Author
OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Can Baltimore Ravens working again Derrick Henry break the NFL’s single-season dashing document?
Lamar Jackson nodded his head when posed the query.
“It is there,” Jackson stated after Wednesday’s follow. “I really feel like he has an awesome probability of attaining that. I feel he can do it. I imagine he can do it.”
In his first season with the Ravens, Henry is having the most effective begin of a embellished nine-year profession. With stiff arms and explosive runs, Henry is averaging a league-best 124.7 yards dashing via seven video games.
He’s on tempo for two,120 yards dashing, which might eclipse Eric Dickerson’s 40-year-old document. Dickerson ran for two,105 yards for the Rams in 1984.
“I do not actually strive to consider that an excessive amount of,” Henry stated when requested about Dickerson’s document. “Simply deal with me doing my job and being higher and higher each week. I do not actually attempt to get into the statistics of issues. I deal with the crew objectives.”
Henry’s 873 yards dashing are probably the most within the first seven video games of a season since DeMarco Murray had 913 in 2014. Murray completed with 1,845 yards dashing.
If Henry is ready to break Dickerson’s document, he would have earned it. In Henry’s remaining 10 video games, he’ll face eight run defenses that rank within the prime half of the league, together with the Cleveland Browns’ Fifteenth-ranked run protection Sunday.
However Henry has proved he can defy the numbers. His 873 yards are the second most by a participant 30 or older via seven video games in NFL historical past, trailing solely Walter Payton’s 875 yards in 1984.
Henry stated it does not matter if his age precipitated groups to shrink back from signing him in free company seven months in the past.
“I went to the crew I used to be imagined to go to and that I needed to go to,” Henry stated. “I am unable to fear about what individuals say. I do what works for Derrick Henry and I am a Baltimore Raven. I wish to do the most effective I can to assist us win every week.”
It was 4 yr in the past when Henry totaled 2,027 yards dashing, falling 94 yards wanting Dickerson’s mark. On his present tempo, Henry would change into the primary participant in NFL historical past to document two 2,000-yard dashing seasons.
At 6-foot-3, 247 kilos, Henry is a serious problem to deliver down for even NFL defenders. However, in an interview with ESPN, NBA star Anthony Edwards of the Minnesota Timberwolves stated he thinks he can play free security and believes he can sort out Henry.
“He is loopy,” a smiling Henry stated of Edwards, who’s 6-4, 230 kilos. “I imply, everyone’s acquired an creativeness. … We acquired to arrange a coaching camp the place basketball gamers come out right here and put these pads on and see in the event that they actually can get via it.”
