FOXBOROUGH - Derrick Henry isn’t the same player he was a year ago, when he threatened to eclipse 2,000 yards rushing (he finished with 1,921) and averaged 5.9 yards per carry (!). His initial burst takes a split second longer to pop into gear, and he’s not throwing around defenders at the same rate, dropping from 2nd in yards after contact in 2024-25 to 6th this season. But Henry at 90% of what he was is still a frightening proposition.
“Haaaaa,” K’Lavon Chaisson emoted when I asked him about Henry. “There’s nobody who’s emulating his style for sure.”
“Big dude,” Christian Barmore said. “Powerful. Can’t give him space. Can overpower you. Yeah, he’s (a) really good back.”
“When he gets rolling downhill, and he's got a head of steam, he's definitely a real problem to deal with,” added linebacker Jack Gibbens, a former teammate of Henry’s in Tennessee.
Mike Vrabel also has a unique perspective on Henry, having coached him with the Titans. It was there that the former Alabama star went from Dion Lewis’ backup to bellcow, and helped put an end to the Brady/Belichick run. He hammered the Patriots in the first round of the 2019-20 playoffs, running for 182 yards in a 20-13 Titans victory. I recall having a number of conversations with Pats defenders before the game, and they all believed if they got Henry going laterally, he wasn’t the same runner. About that...The same holds true now. In fact, some of the Ravens rushing numbers will tell you they’ve been more efficient attacking the edges than they have running it down opponents' throats.
“He’s a very unique player,” Vrabel said of his former running back. “Great speed, great power, strength. He’s just a different body type than what anybody would go against, and so it’s unique in that regard.”
As I scanned the Pats roster, they have no one as physically imposing and as fast to emulate Henry. We joked with Chaisson that perhaps Vrabel would put Khyiris Tonga back there. The edge rusher’s eyes popped out of his head, “Vrabel will have something up his sleeve for us, I’m sure.”
But more to the point, the Pats defense has to figure out a way to return to being the run defense they were in the first nine weeks of the season. Back then (it feels like a lifetime ago in terms of an NFL season), they were threatening to be one of the best run defenses in football history (75 yards per game), and didn’t allow a single back to amass more than 49 yards (James Cook in week 5) in a single game.
Since then, that wall they so often talk about building has crumbled faster than that one in Berlin. The Pats are surrendering an average of over 130 yards on the ground these past five games, and were pounded into submission by Cook and that physical Bills offensive line on Sunday.
“They pushed a lot of scrimmage, and we have to be able to stay gap sound and be able to build a wall,” Vrabel said of Buffalo before looking ahead, “It's a huge challenge this week. I'm sure we'll see a lot of those runs that they did last week. See where we're at with them. That's usually what happens. So, that's what I told the team...”
Before I delve into the Ravens’ rushing attack, a word (or many) on this “wall.” I asked Gibbens how he’d define what that means for the defensive structure.
“We want it to be a wall where the running back doesn't have any creases anywhere he can go,” he told me. “Everybody's playing square, playing physical, pulling down their gap discipline, and that way the running backs got to stop his feet, and then we win.”
The Ravens have been leaning more and more into the ground and pound attack, amassing 100 or more yards rushing in eight of the last nine games. What’s even more impressive about that is Lamar Jackson hasn’t been the same guy who won two MVPs and could have easily won a third last year. He’s on pace for the lowest rushing totals of his career as he navigates a number of injuries. Jackson’s still to be feared - make no mistake - but more of the burden has fallen on Henry as the Ravens fight to overcome a 1-5 start to the season (they’re now 7-7).
"We're a running team – that's a fact," John Harbaugh said earlier this month. "And we are a throwing team, too. We have Lamar Jackson; we have receivers; we have tight ends; we have all that – but we want to always be a team that runs the ball and stops the run. That's been [the case] since 2008. It's not going to really probably ever change, and that's really what football is."
It definitely shouldn’t change on Sunday night, and may even be a greater point of emphasis if the Pats are without LB Robert Spillane, who missed last weekend’s game and has yet to practice this week. Marcus Jones also remains sidelined, and while we know he’s not the biggest guy, he’s been critical to that wall-building by being pound-for-pound as tough as they come. If there was ever a week for this defense to circle the wagons and bring as many bodies to the fight as they can, this is it.
“I just think throughout the last couple of weeks, it has been slowly creeping up on us, and last game it bit us,” Chaisson told me of their recent struggles. “So just get back to us: just playing gap sound, playing with extension, be able to shed out blocks and wrap up, and make tackles. Man, that's the big thing. I think the yards after contact were pretty high last week. So coming into this game, I think everybody knows that once you get your hands on the ball carrier, be able to wrap up, secure him, and let the next guy come in and get the ball out.”
Having multiple defenders rally to the ball is always high on the to-do list, but even more so when you’re trying to wrestle a 6’3”, 252-pound back to the ground. Because even if he’s not what he once was, Henry’s still one of the best, and Harbaugh will lean on him until the Pats stop it. That is, if they can.