Vote for the Baltimore Ravens’ Offensive Player of the Year.
The 2024-2025 NFL season is complete, but before the chapter is closed, we want a final look at the joys that came from the Baltimore Ravens’ season.
So, let’s celebrate the successes by handing out our second-annual Baltimore Beatdown Awards. Today, we continue with Offensive Player of the Year.
Beatdown contributors will offer up our nominees, but the winner is ultimately decided by you, the reader, with a poll at each article’s end.
Baltimore Beatdown’s Game of the Year
Kyle Phoenix: QB Lamar Jackson
All the credit in the world to Derrick Henry. He shattered franchise records in his first season with the Ravens. He was 79 yards shy of a second 2,000-yard season. But offensively, I’m taking Jackson.
Jackson shattered his previous bests, throwing for 4,172 yards, 41 passing touchdowns, averaged 8.8 yards per attempt and 10.15 air yards per attempt. He set the fourth-best passer rating in a single season in NFL history. He tied for his fewest sacks taken in a full season (23), threw only four interceptions and was 85 yards shy of his third 1,000-yard rushing season.
Lamar Jackson is the best football player on the planet.
Nikhil Mehta: Derrick Henry
There’s no contrarian take for this award, though Zay Flowers deserves an honorable mention for the best season by a Ravens WR since Steve Smith in 2014. Plenty of players on offense deserve credit for the Ravens’ success, but none had the individual impact of Derrick Henry. In 2024, he was the most dominant running back not named Saquon Barkley, setting career-highs in efficiency while sneakily converting first downs on almost 60% of his receptions.
Henry now owns the franchise record for single-season rushing touchdowns and yards per attempt, as well as the longest touchdown run in team history. He did this all in a new offense, running far more from the pistol and shotgun than his career with the Titans. He was also behind an offensive line that was very much a work in progress heading into the season, though he obviously benefited from Lamar Jackson’s gravitational force on opposing defenses. Still, Henry far outplayed the $8M APY deal he signed with the Ravens last March and has a strong argument for a pay bump on an extension.
Joshua Reed: RB Derrick Henry
To call the addition of the future Hall of Famer transformative for the Ravens offense in 2024 still feels like it undersells just how truly transcendent his impact was on not just the unit but the team as a whole. He is a weapon whose strengths are amplified by the presence of the greatest dual-threat quarterback in NFL history. He helped Lamar Jackson raise his game even higher because there was less onus on him in the ground game which resulted in the Ravens fielding an historically balanced and potent offense.
Henry became the first player aside from Jackson to lead the team in rushing yards since Gus Edwards in their rookie year back in 2018 and it wasn’t even close. Even though he came up 79 yards short of reaching 2,000 yards on the ground for the second time in his career, the five-time Pro Bowler still had arguably the greatest rushing season in franchise history and the best since Jamal Lewis’ legendary 2003 season when he led the league with 2,066 rushing yards. Henry led the league in rushing for the first three-quarters of the season and finished second to only Saquon Barkley with 1,921 yards and tied for the league lead in rushing touchdowns with 16.Much like Jackson when he buys time behind the line of scrimmage to throw or takes off to run and makes defenders miss in open space, whenever Henry touched the ball, it was a must-see because he was a big-play threat on any given play. He far exceeded the value of his below-market-value contract and I hope he gets his wish of being able to retire a Raven because he clearly has plenty left in the tank and can have a profound impact on the offense and team overall in their pursuit of a Super Bowl.
Zach Canter: Derrick Henry
What a revelation this star was to this organization. In Lamar Jackson’s tenure as the starting quarterback, outside of one year with Mark Ingram, he never had a true running back behind. Despite this, Jackson’s talent, influence, and the scheme allowed the Ravens to boast the leagues best rushing attack over the last five to six years without having a star back or the best offensive line.
Enter Derrick Henry in 2024. Finally a back who stayed healthy and was able to truly punish opposing defenses for focusing on Jackson’s aura. The 30 year old running came back from one of his worst yards per carry seasons on an awful team to having the second-best year of his career with 1921 rushing yards and a career best 5.9 yards per carry.
Outside of Jackson, Henry was by far the best player on the field this year when the Ravens offense took the field. Jackson’s draw emphasized Henry’s impact which allowed the Ravens to have the first ever 4,000 passing/3,000 rushing yard ever. And despite his age, there’s nothing to say that he’ll slow down in year two of his Ravens career.
Zachary Siegel: Derrick Henry
Derrick Henry’s presence in Baltimore was felt from the first snap of the season when the entire Kansas City Chiefs defense sold out to stop the run, and the drive still resulted in a touchdown for the King.
While Lamar Jackson was great this season and could be argued for any one of these awards, this offense was clearly elevated by the presence of Henry creating one of the most fluid QB-RB relationships the league has ever seen.
Henry is by far the best weapon that Lamar has ever had next to him, and it worked out better than anyone could have hoped. Many players had career years this season, and they almost all trace back to the defense not knowing what to do with the most dynamic duo in the league.
Henry gave defensive coordinators nightmares this season, and with his recent interview claiming he wants to retire a Raven, it should hopefully stay that way.