Only eight NFL players have rushed for 2,000 yards in a single season. They are, in descending order:
Eric Dickerson, Adrian Peterson, Jamal Lewis, Barry Sanders, Derrick Henry, Terrell Davis, Chris Johnson, Saquon Barkley (this season, with one game left to go), and O.J. Simpson (the less said about the final name on that list, the better).
As you can see, no one has done it twice, but Henry could become the first, provided he has a monster game with many carries on Sunday. Henry currently has 1,783 yards rushing on the season, so if he can rack up 217 against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday, he’ll do something no one else has ever done.
Of course, that would still not be enough to break the Ravens’ single-season record, as Lewis accumulated 2,066 during his out-of-this-world 2003 season.
Henry’s numbers are overshadowed by Barkley’s, who is currently at 2,006 and within striking distance of Dickerson’s 1984 all-time greatest of 2,105.
In an exclusive interview in 2021, Dickerson told The Sports Bank that he believes his record will never be broken.
“Everything has to go perfect,” Dickerson said.
“It’s like Derrick Henry, he got it (2,027 yards in 2020) last year and was ahead of the pace this year, and then he got hurt.
“I was ahead of the pace a couple times, and although I got there, I just couldn’t get there again.”
While both the NFL and the Ravens’ records are almost certainly out of reach for Henry, 2K can still happen.
Flashback to the COVID-19 pandemic-altered season of 2020, when Henry, then with the Tennessee Titans, needed 223 rushing yards in the season finale to hit the prestigious 2,000-yard benchmark.
He lit up the Houston Texans for 250 yards in a game, much like this Sunday, where a division title was on the line.