I’m going to stage with you, dearest readers.
When the juggernaut Baltimore Ravens signed perennial Professional Bowler Derrick Henry within the offseason, I did assume there could be some potential for fireworks with Lamar Jackson. I simply wasn’t that prime on a 30-year-old working again with over 2,000 profession touches coming into 2024 and nonetheless enjoying like an unstoppable power of nature each week. That type of mileage is hard to beat whereas enjoying essentially the most bodily demanding place in soccer.
I used to be unsuitable. Lifeless unsuitable. After watching Henry demoralize the Denver Broncos’ stout protection on Sunday afternoon to the tune of an off-the-cuff 22 carries for 106 yards and two touchdowns, I’ve no alternative however to attract the next conclusion.
If Henry maintains his present unbelievable tempo (he most likely will), he needs to be the NFL MVP this 12 months. Don’t let Henry’s elegant opinion on the matter be an element, both:
Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry might must duke it out for MVP, based on @tracywolfson.
King Henry gave his choose 👀 pic.twitter.com/24ptjTWnX1
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) November 3, 2024
I do know it may be rash to declare somebody’s particular person season the perfect they’ve ever seen midway by way of a season, however I legitimately can’t bear in mind Henry being higher than he’s proper now. Because of a Ravens energy speeding assault that emphasizes Henry’s (and Lamar Jackson’s) most interesting items and a high-powered Baltimore passing recreation, the famous person working again appears extra dynamic and imposing than we’ve ever seen.
Right here’s what Henry has achieved in simply 9 video games with the Ravens:
- He’s the primary NFL participant ever to attain at the least one landing in every of his first 9 video games with a brand new workforce.
- He now has seven consecutive seasons with at the least 10 touchdowns, tying Adrian Peterson for the second-longest streak of all time.
- He’s already at 1,052 speeding yards … with 9 video games to go. That’s proper, he’s on tempo to turn out to be the primary working again ever to hurry for at the least 2,000 yards twice. Barry Sanders, Eric Dickerson, et al., eat your respective hearts out.
- On prime of every little thing, he’s averaging over six yards a carry. People, that’s virtually the equal of an efficient downfield passing recreation by merely stuffing the ball into the chest of a Mack Truck of a human being.
- Oh, and with 11 scores in 2024 to this point, he’s now simply the eighth participant ever to attain at the least 100 profession touchdowns.
For all intents and functions, Henry is having one of many best seasons by a working again in NFL historical past. In 2024. On the near-height of a passing renaissance pushed by maybe the very best flooring of quarterback play ever throughout the league. The Ravens know learn how to get him downhill, and so they know learn how to optimize him, even in a vogue the Tennessee Titans most likely couldn’t fathom.
How do I do know this?
The elite Broncos protection began promoting out on Henry by placing all 11 defenders within the field, and he nonetheless gashed it time and time once more. I’ve been watching NFL soccer for almost 20 years. I don’t assume I’ve seen a working again have his approach with a top-of-the-line protection like that. It was jarring to see it occur reside.
I do know the NFL MVP award has turn out to be one thing of a “finest quarterback honor.” And I get it. That place holds a lot weight over every little thing else on this brutal, harmful recreation. It’s solely pure to provide it to the passer who had the best season typically. I can’t begrudge voters for rewarding essentially the most very important place, even when it takes the drama out of the MVP’s face.
You actually have to face out as a dominant non-passer to get this honor. I do assume that’s honest.
However that’s the factor. If there have been ever a 12 months to reward the extraordinary effort of a non-quarterback star who has given a potential Tremendous Bowl workforce one other terrifying dimension, it might be 2024. It will be the 6-foot-3, 247-pound Mack Truck who has made his two-time MVP quarterback much more unattainable to defend.
It will be Henry, who needs to be the NFL’s undisputed MVP of this season previous its midway level.
