Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz and Frank Schwab discuss whether adding RB Derrick Henry will get the Ravens over the hump, past the Chiefs and into the Super Bowl in 2024.
Video transcript
The Baltimore Ravens.
And what’s interesting to me is just Derek Henry.
What impact does Derrick Henry make?
Because you can talk about Derrick Henry’s stats last year.
I want to point out that the Titans’ offensive line was terrible.
So whatever Derrick Henry did, he did it like a man, but no one was afraid of his quarterback.
No one was afraid of their offensive line.
They knew how to stop Derrick Henry, which has been the way and, you know, every year I think about the workload that is asked of Derrick Henry when you see the way he coaches, you know how he can play.
It will be huge for adding an element.
You can depend if you’re the Ravens in the running game, they didn’t have that.
They had good running backs.
I can’t get healthy.
Henry can stay healthy.
Henry can bolster your entire running attack.
I think he can bring more balance to the attack, he can bring more threat to the attack.
I think Derek Henry makes a big difference for Lamar.
Yes, me too and I keep thinking about the AFC championship game.
They gave the running back six carries.
Which was a competitive game like, yeah, the Ravens were never shut out in that game and they just never turned the ball over.
That doesn’t happen if you have Derrick Henry, like you’re going to say, well, you know what?
Yes, we are down 10 points now, but we still feed Derrick Henry because he is one of the great running backs of this generation.
And I, I think Derek Henry has a question about his workload and when he’s going to hit the wall and it could be this year, we don’t know, we’ve seen guys change teams at the end of their careers and all of a sudden it’s like , wow, it’s washed, it’s over.
I don’t think that way about Derek Henry necessarily because Lamar takes a lot of pressure off him.
Is Derek Henry going to stay like this?
This is a busy track.
I haven’t seen this in years.
What is a seven-man box, what’s happening here is what happens when you have the MVP of the league, a quarterback who can also run the ball and you have to account for the defense as a runner.
So I think Derek Henry will be rejuvenated a bit so he won’t be the absolute focal point of an offense.
And I think he will compliment you very well.
And I guess what happened in some of those playoff losses?
I think Lamar puts all the pressure on himself.
I, I, you can see that in some of his body language with the mistakes that he’s made and that’s not to excuse him for the mistakes that he’s made.
He fell short in the big games.
But how much help did he really have again, six rushing here at East last year because they didn’t trust that running game.
Obviously, I think being able to hand the ball off to Derrick Henry over and over and over again in a playoff game against a team like the Chiefs or the Bills, wherever they face.
I think this takes a lot off Lamar Jackson’s shoulders and maybe Derek Henry will help them get over the hump.
