Front-runner reportedly emerges for Titans RB Derrick Henry
After trading All-Pro safety Kevin Byard to the Philadelphia Eagles, many have pegged running back Derrick Henry as the next player to be shipped off as part of the Tennessee Titans teardown.
While it’s not known how serious the Titans are about trading Henry, who’s in the fine season of his four-year, $50 million contract, the Baltimore Ravens have emerged as the early front-runner to acquire Henry if the team does decide to pull the trigger, according to a report from A to Z Sports.
The Ravens have the No. 3 rushing offense in the NFL, but quarterback Lamar Jackson has accounted for 35% of the team’s rushing yards and 45% of their rushing touchdowns. Take away Jackson’s contributions on the ground, and they would actually rank 22nd in rushing.
Baltimore lost J.K. Dobbins to a season-ending Achilles injury in the season opener and has had to rely on a running back-by-committee approach with Gus Edwards, Justice Hill and Melvin Gordon splitting carries.
Edwards has been the best of the three, rushing for 346 yards and two touchdowns on 86 carries, but he doesn’t even crack the top 20 among the league’s top rushers. Adding a back of Henry’s caliber would not only address a position of need but it would also push Baltimore into the upper stratosphere of top teams in the AFC along with Miami and Kansas City.
The 29-year-old Henry ranks 10th in the NFL in rushing yards (425) and tied for 14th in rushing touchdowns (three). He’s also 13th among RBs in yards from scrimmage (542).
Henry has seen his carries and yards per game dip slightly with the Titans playing from behind more this year than in years past. However, playing for a contender like Baltimore could help Henry get back to being the player who averaged 100 rushing yards per game and 13 touchdowns per season over the last five years.
Potentially complicating matters is Baltimore’s lack of cap space. The team has $6.29 million in space available, per Over the Cap. Henry is owed somewhere south of $7 million for the rest of the season, so the Ravens would likely have to include a player with a sizeable salary to make the money work like Devin Duvernay ($4.3M), as suggested by Bleacher Report’s Alex Kay.
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