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There aren’t many AFC-NFC rivalries, owing to the NFL’s scheduling formula, but the Tennessee Titans have put a good effort into frustrating the New Orleans Saints over the last few years. They’ve beaten the Saints to the punch on multiple personnel pickups: outbidding them for slot receiver Adam Humphries, winning the dubious Jadeveon Clowney sweepstakes, and sniping top cornerback prospect Caleb Farley ahead of them in this year’s draft. Former Saints first rounder Kenny Vaccaro started several years for them, too.
They even snapped up Janoris Jenkins to pair with Farley after the Saints cut him, though the veteran cornerback relayed a lot of positives about his experience in New Orleans. Mike Vrabel’s squad may have lost handily in their only meeting — the Saints won 38-28 at Nissan Stadium late in the 2019 season — but Tennessee played that game without its best player. You can bet Derrick Henry is eager to introduce himself to the Saints when they visit Nashville again in 2021.
The 6-foot-3, 247-pound Henry has won the league’s rushing title in back-to-back years, improving on his breakout 2019 season by averaging 126.7 yards per game in 2020 (for context, that’s more than double Alvin Kamara’s 62.1 per-game average last season). If not for a last-minute hamstring injury, he would have at least threatened the storied Saints run defense amid their 55-game streak back in 2019.
Now he’ll get to test it for himself, and it remains to be seen if New Orleans is still up to the task. The Saints lost their best run defender in Malcom Brown; the sneaky-agile nose tackle was talented at engaging multiple blockers, allowing second-level defenders like Demario Davis and Malcolm Jenkins to knife through the gaps and into the backfield. Brown missed the game that snapped that run defense streak, too, which doesn’t bode well for the Saints as they march on without him.
So will Henry live up to the hype? He’ll at least be motivated. He’s faced 30 of the NFL’s 32 teams, running against every defense except his own Titans teammates and the Saints, who are scheduled to kick off at Tennessee on Nov. 14 (ironically, a week before a road rematch with that same frustrating Eagles team). But Henry won’t be alone. He’ll have Pro Bowl receiver A.J. Brown — another one-time Saints draft target annoyingly grabbed by the Titans — flanking one side of the field and former Saints rival Julio Jones on the other.
At least the Saints are experienced in defending Jones; he never caught a touchdown pass against them after New Orleans drafted defensive backs Marshon Lattimore and Marcus Williams in 2017, and finished his Atlanta Falcons career with more fumbles yielded to the Saints (4) than touchdowns scored (3) against them. Maybe they can defend Henry just as well, though his body of work suggests it’ll have to be a team effort.
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