Fantasy Football splash – Derrick Henry to the Ravens

Derrick Henry moves to Baltimore

The Tennessee Titans move on from Derrick Henry after eight seasons as their workhorse running back. Tony Pollard was added yesterday as a partial replacement, but the Titans begin a new era under HC Brian Callahan and without Henry for the first time since 2016.

YEAR GMS RUNS YARDS TDS PASS COMP YARDS TDS PPR RANK PPR
2016 14 110 490 5 15 13 137 0 105.7 45
2017 16 176 744 5 17 11 136 1 135.0 36
2018 16 215 1059 12 18 15 99 0 202.8 16
2019 15 303 1540 16 24 18 206 2 300.6 5
2020 16 378 2027 17 31 19 114 0 335.1 3
2021 8 219 937 10 20 18 154 0 187.1 23
2022 16 349 1538 13 41 33 398 0 304.6 3
2023 17 280 1167 12 36 28 214 0 238.1 10

Henry has been a Top-10 fantasy running back for the last five years when not injured and he’s proven to be amazingly durable for a bruiser that turns 30 years old. Henry signed a two-year, $16 million deal with the Ravens to move them beyond their traditional committee backfield.

The Ravens already let Gus Edwards leave and J.K. Dobbins will be an unsigned free agent that could never remain healthy. The Ravens offense changed with new OC Todd Monken last year, and Henry is a perfect fit for what the Ravens offense needs.

Fantasy football outlook

Henry may be turning 30 years old, but he’s been amazingly durable and outside the norm for staying healthy. The future Hall-of-Famer and past 2,000-yard rusher lands in an offense that has a Top-3 offensive line – a major upgrade from the Bottom-3 O-line in Tennessee. And the new offense under Monk produced 1,696 rushing yards (No. 8) and 20 rushing touchdowns (No. 3) last year with far less talent than Henry.

The Ravens offense also does not throw much to running backs which has never been a strength for Henry. He’s exactly what the rest of the league did not want to see lining up behind Lamar Jackson.

Syndication: Palm Beach Post

Derrick Henry reigns supreme, but will another Titans back emerge?

Will the Titans finally let another running back get in on the fun?

Every team in the NFL has two or three backs who are offensive contributors to some degree … except the Tennessee Titans. In the modern era of the NFL, no team has committed to the run and one player in particular (Derrick Henry) as much as Tennessee. Even at the height of their careers, LaDainian Tomlinson and Adrian Peterson had a backup to carry some of the load. Not the Titans.

Last year, Henry had 382 touches in 16 games (349 rushes, 33 receptions). The second most carries by a running back was Hassan Haskins with 25 – 12 of those coming in the one game Henry missed.

This hasn’t been unusual. Since becoming the full-time starter in 2019, in 55 games, Henry has rushed 1,249 times – an astonishing 23 carries a game. Most players are lucky to rush 23 times once or twice a year, much less averaging that number over a four-year span. Head coach Mike Vrabel has built his offense around Henry, and no running back in the league is even close to the level of playing time that Henry gets. This may be the “Last Dance” in the Henry era, but the offense remains designed for Henry to run 25 times.

Fantasy football team previews: AFC South

Plenty of turnover in the division will make things interesting in fantasy.

The 2022 fantasy football draft season is starting to heat up now that we’ve gone through the height of free agency and all of the chosen rookies have been assigned to their professional home cities.

The landscape has changed a great deal for many franchises after a whirlwind offseason, and our divisional preview series will help you stay on top of all of the changes to date.

AFC divisional previews

East | North | South | West

NFC divisional previews

East | North | South | West