The Baltimore Ravens are headed into yet another season with one of the greatest security blankets in the history of football, and it's not Lamar Jackson.
Typically, we think of security blankets as that reliable tight end or elite slot receiver for when the plays break down, but Hall of Fame running back Terrell Davis knows the value of a running back like Derrick Henry. Henry makes Ravens fans feel all warm and fuzzy inside, knowing that he's continued to remain ageless and does what he does at the highest of levels. You can count on him.
In an interview with FanSided's Sterling Holmes, Davis sat down and chatted many topics, but most importantly for us, he gushed over Henry. Appearing on behalf of his partnership with Teva Pharmaceuticals in order to raise awareness around tardive dyskinesia, Davis had some good stuff to say about that running back in Baltimore. He ripped off Henry's name immediately after being asked which current running backs should be Canton-bound.
"Derrick Henry is to me the obvious choice. I look at his yards, and the dude has just been piling up. The fact that he had a 2,000-yard season and then had a 1,900-yard season. The size, the speed, the combination of the two..."
Terrell Davis points out what makes Derrick Henry far more special than other great running backs
Davis highlighted Henry's ability to purely run the football.
"It's not like he's a pass catcher. There's no supplementing what he does. He's a pure runner ... and in this day in age to be able to do that and still compile those yards, at the level he's doing it, it's incredible."
He makes a great point. Henry has never really been the pass-catching type of back. In a league where many of the top running backs can also catch the football and make plays after the fact, Henry remains in a league of his own.
You have guys like Christian McCaffrey, Bijan Robinson and Jahmyr Gibbs, for example, who are all fantastic in the passing game. And they're all in the elite of the elite, right now.
And then there's Henry, who has gone over 20 receptions in a season just twice.
13,000 rushing yards in 10 seasons, including coming off a season when he ran for 1,595 yards at age 31 ... yeah, he's one of one and Ravens fans know it.
Maybe the most intriguing thing about Henry and his lack of participation in the passing game has to be that, when he's on the field, opposing defenses can almost completely count him out of being a target for Lamar Jackson.
Defenses know that Henry is going to run the football, and that's pretty much it. It reminds me of many moments where Peyton Manning would come to the line of scrimmage, assess the defense, maybe call an audible and, if he were to have stopped and simply told the defense what he was going to do right then and there ... it still wouldn't have mattered. He was that precise. He was that good.
The same goes for Henry. Defenses know he's going to get the football and they know how he's going to get it. That still doesn't help them stop one of the greatest to ever do it.
He is inevitable.
Derrick Henry is inevitable, he's darn-near immortal at this point, and Davis is absolutely right: he is bound for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. No question.
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