I’m going to level with you, dearest readers.
When the juggernaut Baltimore Ravens signed perennial Pro Bowler Derrick Henry in the offseason, I did think there would be some potential for fireworks with Lamar Jackson. I just wasn’t that high on a 30-year-old running back with over 2,000 career touches coming into 2024 and still playing like an unstoppable force of nature every week. That kind of mileage is tough to overcome while playing the most physically demanding position in football.
I was wrong. Dead wrong. After watching Henry demoralize the Denver Broncos’ stout defense on Sunday afternoon to the tune of a casual 22 carries for 106 yards and two touchdowns, I have no choice but to draw the following conclusion.
If Henry maintains his current unbelievable pace (he probably will), he should be the NFL MVP this year. Don’t let Henry’s classy opinion on the matter be a factor, either:
Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry may have to duke it out for MVP, according to @tracywolfson.
King Henry gave his pick ???? pic.twitter.com/24ptjTWnX1
— NFL on CBS ???? (@NFLonCBS) November 3, 2024
I know it might be rash to declare someone’s individual season the best they’ve ever seen halfway through a season, but I legitimately can’t remember Henry being better than he is right now. Thanks to a Ravens power rushing attack that emphasizes Henry’s (and Lamar Jackson’s) finest gifts and a high-powered Baltimore passing game, the superstar running back looks more dynamic and imposing than we’ve ever seen.
Here’s what Henry has accomplished in just nine games with the Ravens:
He’s the first NFL player ever to score at least one touchdown in each of his first nine games with a new team. He now has seven consecutive seasons with at least 10 touchdowns, tying Adrian Peterson for the second-longest streak of all time. He’s already at 1,052 rushing yards … with nine games to go. That’s right, he’s on pace to become the first running back ever to rush for at least 2,000 yards twice. Barry Sanders, Eric Dickerson, et al., eat your respective hearts out. On top of everything, he’s averaging over six yards a carry. Folks, that is almost the equivalent of an effective downfield passing game by simply stuffing the ball into the chest of a Mack Truck of a human being. Oh, and with 11 scores in 2024 so far, he’s now just the eighth player ever to score at least 100 career touchdowns.For all intents and purposes, Henry is having one of the greatest seasons by a running back in NFL history. In 2024. At the near-height of a passing renaissance driven by perhaps the highest floor of quarterback play ever across the league. The Ravens know how to get him downhill, and they know how to optimize him, even in a fashion the Tennessee Titans probably couldn’t fathom.
How do I know this?
The elite Broncos defense started selling out on Henry by putting all 11 defenders in the box, and he still gashed it time and time again. I’ve been watching NFL football for nearly 20 years. I don’t think I’ve seen a running back have his way with a top-of-the-line defense like that. It was jarring to see it happen live.
I know the NFL MVP award has become something of a “best quarterback honor.” And I get it. That position holds so much weight over everything else in this brutal, dangerous game. It’s only natural to give it to the passer who had the finest season sometimes. I can’t begrudge voters for rewarding the most vital position, even if it takes the drama out of the MVP’s face.
You really have to stand out as a dominant non-passer to get this honor. I do think that’s fair.
But that’s the thing. If there were ever a year to reward the extraordinary effort of a non-quarterback star who has given a possible Super Bowl team another terrifying dimension, it would be 2024. It would be the 6-foot-3, 247-pound Mack Truck who has made his two-time MVP quarterback even more impossible to defend.
It would be Henry, who should be the NFL’s undisputed MVP of this season past its halfway point.
