Derrick Henry continues to make history while adding a ‘different dimension’ to Ravens offense

The two-time league rushing champion is well on his way to another crown and then some as the final piece that is taking this unit to another elite level.

Through the first nine games of the 2024 season, the Baltimore Ravens signing four-time Pro Bowl running back Derrick Henry already has a strong argument to be not only the best offseason acquisition of any team from this past spring but of the last decade.

It is certainly the best and most impactful the Ravens front office has made in more than a decade since they acquired another future Hall of Famer, wide receiver Anquan Boldin, in 2010. Three years later, he was one of the main catalysts during the team’s magical Super Bowl run in 2012.

With Henry leading the charge for their rushing attack, the Ravens are primed to contend for the third championship in franchise history this year after his sensational and historic start to the season.

“We have been really good at running the ball for a long time, but this is different. I mean, Derrick Henry is different,” Head Coach John Harbaugh said. “He is adding a dimension that we have not had before.”

Henry came into the Ravens’ Week 9 matchup against a vaunted Denver Broncos defense needing one rushing touchdown to surpass Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders for 10th on the all-time list and 54 rushing yards to become the first Ravens running back to rush for 1,000 yards in a regular season since Mark Ingram in 2019.

With his 106 yards and two scores on 23 carries in Sunday’s 41-10 shellacking, he achieved both goals and then some. His first touchdown also marked the 100th rushing score of his career and his second pushed him further up the all-time list past another Hall of Famer in Marshall Faulk and 2005 league MVP Shaun Alexander who were tied for the eighth spot.

“God has been tremendously good to me, and I’m thankful,” Henry said. “Credit to everybody who’s been a part of my career [and] to help me get to this milestone. Barry Sanders is like a running back superhero, so that’s very cool. I don’t take it for granted.”

Henry already led the league in rushing coming into Sunday’s game by nearly 200 yards from the next closest. While Saquan Barkley closed the gap slightly with a big day against a woeful Jacksonville Jaguars defense, Henry is still ahead by a comfortable margin after his own strong performance.

The Ravens haven’t had a true bell-cow running back since the heyday of Ray Rice from 2009-2012 during Harbaugh’s early years at the helm of the team. The 17th-year head coach had to reference an era before his time in Baltimore to recollect the last time the offense had a player at the position of Henry’s seismic game-changing ability and impact.

“You go back to Jamal Lewis maybe,” Harbaugh said. “This is different, and I’m excited about it.”

Lewis was the driving force for a gritty Ravens offensive attack during the team’s first-ever Super Bowl run as a rookie in 2000 and went on to have a very successful career that included leading the league in rushing and eclipsing the rare 2,000-yard threshold in 2003. Henry topped 2,000 yards once in his career as well and is on pace to potentially reach it again this season but unlike the early stages of his career or the bulk of Lewis’, he isn’t the focal point the offense is built around. That honor belongs to his reigning league MVP quarterback, Lamar Jackson.

“ He’s dangerous with his arm, and I think he showed that today,” Henry said. “If you want to take away him running the ball, [he’ll] go over your head and throw it. If he has to run it, he’ll do that as well. Hats off to him. He’s an engine that makes this thing go – ‘MV3.’”

Henry has scored in all nine of the Ravens games this season and his 13 scores from scrimmage during that prolific span leads the league. This game marked his fourth multi-touchdown game of the season and he became just the fourth player since 1990 to score in each of his first nine games of a season, joining the likes of Todd Gurley (first 10 straight in 2018), Arian Foster (first nine straight in 2012) and LeSean McCoy (first nine straight in 2011).

“I give the credit to the guys who are blocking to make my job easier,” Henry said. “All I have to do is just make my reads, get north to south and make the most out of the play. Credit to all the guys blocking doing a great job and all their unselfishness.”