Derrick Henry’s legendary dominance shouldn’t be taken for granted

Spoiler alert: this Derrick Henry guy is pretty good at this football thing. On a day where he once again topped over 200 rushing yards (219) in a 17-10 win for the Tennessee Titans over the Houston Texans, 118 of those came against a stacked box (at least eight defenders), per Next Gen Stats.

This game marked Henry’s fourth straight outing of rushing for at least 200 yards and two touchdowns against Houston, the longest such streak against any one team in NFL history.

He also has a total of six career games where he’s topped those totals, three more than any other running back in league history. In fact, his four versus Houston alone is more than any other back.

This recent 219-yard output was the second-most most by any player in a single game since, well, you guessed it, King Henry (250 vs. Houston in Week 17 of 2020).

“Credit to those guys upfront, and all the guys blocking – o-line, receivers, tight ends, fullback,” Henry said. “Just making the sacrifice to go out there and block and allow us to have success. I give all the credit to them, and I just have to go out there and do my job … and we were able to win as a team.”

Since 2016, the entire league has had a total of 20 games where a ball carrier eclipses 100 rushing yards when facing a stacked box. Henry owns a whopping 25 percent of those games.

To add more context to how ridiculous Henry has been, the Alabama legend leads the NFL in carries (568), yards (2,646), and touchdowns (45) against stacked boxes since he entered the league back in 2016.

In total, the former Heisman Trophy winner has 1,078 more rushing yards versus eight or more defenders than the next closest running back, fellow 2016 NFL draft classmate, Ezekiel Elliott.

This is even more impressive when you realize that Elliott has been a full-time starter since his rookie season, as opposed to the Titans’ star running back, who didn’t become a full-time starter until 2018.

Ever since his legendary breakout game versus the Jacksonville Jaguars back in Week 13 of 2018, the 2020 Offensive Player of the Year award winner has produced a ridiculous 6,392 rushing yards and 64 total touchdowns over his last 55 games (playoffs included).

Plus, after scoring his 75th career touchdown on Sunday, the All-Pro running back is now the Titans/Oilers franchise’s all-time touchdown leader.

Henry’s greatness should never be taken for granted. He truly is a one-of-a-kind, Hall-of-Fame-caliber talent that will go down as one of the greatest running backs to ever step foot on a football field.

Only time will tell if he has the longevity to legitimately enter the greatest-ever conversation, but make no mistake about it, we’re approaching a point where you can put his career peak up against any legendary running back.

And, despite all the detractors who thought Henry would decline heading into the season, it looks like his peak isn’t done yet, either.

This legendary run we are all witnessing at the moment shouldn’t be taken for granted because when this peak is over — hopefully not for many more years — we may never see another back like this again.

Henry’s dominance will be something football fans talk about for generations to come.

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Story originally appeared on Titans Wire