Titans running back Derrick Henry is a one-of-a-kind talent, impossible to replace

By Martin Rogers
FOX Sports Columnist

The thing about players capable of making an entire crowd gasp and lighting up the internet with a single play? The same effect can happen when things go wrong.

That’s how it is with Derrick Henry and his brutal stiff-arms, his preposterously powerful touchdown runs and even his jump-pass TD throws.

While Henry’s eye-popping exploits have turned him into the grand master of the physical highlight-reel moment, his potentially season-ending injury in Week 8 also led to a collective reaction of groans, sad shakes of the head and, if you take your fantasy team that seriously, maybe a few tears.

Professional football is a punishing pursuit, and every injury deserves sympathy, but Henry’s foot problem that was due to be surgically repaired Tuesday morning was particularly galling.

The bruising running back was having a phenomenal year, with his early campaign stats putting him on course to threaten several records, including one especially iconic one: Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing total of 2,105 yards from 37 years ago. The Tennessee Titans had jumped to an impressive 6-2 record and first place in the AFC on the back of four consecutive victories.

The league is packed with great athletes, but only a few reach a level where, at their best, you’d consider them unstoppable. Henry has tasted that rare air, punctuated by those ridiculous plays on which his extraordinary strength just takes over.

Take, for instance, when he didn’t so much stiff-arm Josh Norman as propel the Buffalo Bills cornerback into the air with one hand last year. Or his wild, 99-yard touchdown run against the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2018, on which he palmed three bodies out of his path while sprinting the length of the field.

I interviewed Henry last week, and he was clearly loving life and reveling in the way the Titans had been playing. He admitted that while he strives for consistent productivity, the big-time plays — and the response they generate — give him a special lift.

"Any time you get one of those plays that gets the crowd fired up and you hear that noise, it’s special," Henry told me in a telephone conversation. "Because it tells you that the team has done something big, and the people are responding to it."

Henry is a team-first guy who peppers every sentence with credit to his colleagues on the Titans, but there is simply no one on the roster — and precious few across the entire league — who can single-handedly deliver plays that marry hit-the-rewind-button entertainment value with ultimate-level effectiveness.

Replacing Henry is going to be darn near impossible. Third-down back Jeremy McNichols is ready to step up for now, but expect to see quarterback Ryan Tannehill throw the ball more. The Titans have already added veteran running back Adrian Peterson to their practice squad and plan to elevate him to the active roster.

In a reminder of how quickly things can shift in the NFL, just days before his injury, Henry was talking about the squad’s upcoming games and their hopes for the campaign, plus the thrill of posting numbers that had him on a historic course.

"We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves, but we know this team is capable of a lot of great things," he told me. "We have all got each other’s backs and believe in what we all bring to the table." (Henry’s interview with me was courtesy of his partnership with Team Milk, and he extolled the virtues of milk as a vital source of nutrition for elite athletes.)

"It is a real honor to be talked of in the same breath with some of the greats of the game," he added. "People tell me about the statistical numbers, and it’s cool, but the most important thing is if it can help us win games."

Henry led the NFL in rushing attempts, rushing yards and rushing touchdowns in both 2019 and 2020, and he was topping the charts once again this season when he went down.

"There has never been an NFL running back as tall as Henry, as thick as Henry and as swift as Henry," Ben Shpigel wrote in the New York Times. "That fact has been generally really good for the Tennessee Titans and really bad for everyone else."

Henry's absence alters the picture significantly. The Titans are now ninth-favorite, at +1400, to win the Super Bowl, per FOX Bet, and could drop further if they can’t get by the Los Angeles Rams this weekend. In a jam-packed AFC, many will think the Titans’ hold on the top spot can be loosened.

"They’re not going anywhere without Derrick Henry," Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe said on FS1’s "Undisputed." "He’s the offense there. They’re a playoff team, but I don’t believe without him they could beat a Buffalo again or a Baltimore or Pittsburgh.

"How far can they go?"

Since last weekend — and the one outcome Tennessee feared more than any other — the answer is very different.

Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider Newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.