Former Alabama running back Derrick Henry was one of the top running backs in the NFL for the 2019 season. The Heisman-winner helped carry the Tennessee Titans all the way to the AFC Championship. The question that looms over Henry heading into the 2020 season is if he’ll be able to be the same player, or better, than he was the year before.
Pro Football Focus’ Sam Monson believes Henry will produce lower numbers in 2020 for a variety of reasons.
In 2019, Henry’s fourth season in the NFL, he rushed for a league leading 1,540 yards off of a league high 303 carries. He also led the NFL in touchdowns with 16.
Admittedly, that’s a difficult set of stats to improve upon, but Monson is convinced Henry won’t even be able to replicate his career-best season.
“They basically brought everybody back from a year ago and the plan is to just run it back again. That worries me,” Monson said. “I don’t think that what they were doing last season was sustainable. So this idea that Ryan Tannehill is going to play as well as he did last year, that Derrick Henry is going to play as well as he did last year, I think would be pretty concerning. I think Derrick Henry’s production is a lot less bulletproof than people are giving it credit for.”
He cites the team’s quarterback, Ryan Tannehill, and his strong, unprecedented play in 2019. If Tannehill can’t have as good of a season, Monson believes that ill directly impacts Henry’s production.
He’s able to back up his claim by pointing out henry’s inconsistency while the Titans had Marcus Mariota as their signal caller.
“He was the No. 11 rusher in the NFL when Marcus Mariota was the starting quarterback – [and then] they made the switch to Ryan Tannehill and everything changed,” Monson said. “Since that point, they also let one of the best run-blocking tackles in the NFL in Jack Conklin hit the open market in free agency, so I could see Derrick Henry having a notably worse season this year than he had last year. I don’t know that you’re going to be looking at him as this phenomenal rushing champion kind of player.”
‘Notably worse’ may be an extreme claim, but if the league has learned one thing about the Alabama product, it’s that he can turn it on in big games and be the difference maker.
Roll Tide Wire will keep you updated on Derrick Henry as he makes his way into year No. 5 in the NFL with the Tennessee Titans.