The previous time that Tennessee played in an NFL game in London, Titans running back Derrick Henry was a lot closer to the College Football Hall of Fame than the Pro Football Hall of Fame. As Tennessee plays the Baltimore Ravens in London on Sunday, Henry is going to be a candidate for enshrinement in both when his NFL career is over.
In 2015, Henry set the SEC single-season rushing record as the conference’s Offensive Player of the Year and won the Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award and Walter Camp Player of the Year Award for Alabama’s CFP national-championship team.
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After joining the Titans in the second round of the 2016 NFL Draft, Henry ran for 1,234 yards and 10 touchdowns in his first two seasons as DeMarco Murray’s backup.
Henry got his first chance as the No. 1 running back in 2018. After Tennessee lost 20-19 to the Los Angeles Chargers in London in its seventh game of that season, Henry had 273 yards and one touchdown on 84 carries.
He was hardly King Henry then and made one more start before the Titans replaced him in the lineup with Dion Lewis.
In his fourth game off the bench, Henry ran for 238 yards and four touchdowns on 17 carries in a 30-9 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars. He went back into the starting lineup and has started every game in which he’s played since.
In the final four games of the 2018 season, Henry had 585 yards and seven touchdowns on 87 carries. In 2019, Henry led the NFL with 1,540 rushing yards and 16 rushing touchdowns. In 2020, Henry became the eighth player to reach 2,000 rushing yards in a single season as he led the league again with 2,027 yards and 17 touchdowns.
From 2019 though 2022, Henry piled up almost 700 more rushing yards than any other NFL player despite missing nine games in 2021 because of a broken foot.
“I haven’t really thought about that much,” Henry said on Thursday when asked about the difference the five years between London games had made in his career. “Not really. Thankful that everything happened the way it did. I guess it’s a moment to look back on growth and where I was at compared to where I’m at now.”
When Henry surged in the 2018 season, he credited advice from former Tennessee running back Eddie George, a fellow Heisman Trophy winner. Five years later, Henry enters Sunday’s game second to George on the franchise’s career rushing list, needing 1,346 yards to reach the top spot.
“He’s a great dude, a great mentor and a guy I look up to,” Henry said of George in 2018. “So I texted him and asked if I could give him a call to get some advice. We had a conversation about this year, and I asked him what I needed to do and what he thought about how I was playing. He gave his opinion and kept it real with me.
“He shot me straight and told me I needed to finish runs, that I needed to be more physical and make the defense pay. He told me I wasn’t playing to my potential, and I could play better. That’s the stuff I needed to hear. It gave me a different outlook moving forward.”
After Henry’s 2018 breakthrough, George shared what he had told the young running back.
“He asked me flat-out what I thought about his game,” George said. “And I was very honest. I said, ‘Look, it’s not about you hitting the home run. We know you can hit the home run. It’s what you can do consistently between the tackles, and it comes down to one fundamental thing. It comes down to you imposing your will on defenders. You’re too big not to use that as your strength. You have to force guys to tackle you. Make one cut and go.’”
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The way the Titans’ season has started, it might be time for another talk with George. Tennessee has a 2-3 record with Henry 12th in the NFL with 328 yards and two touchdowns on 86 carries.
The Titans will hit their bye after playing in London.
“It’ll definitely feel better than 2-4, I can tell you that,” Henry said when asked about the importance of entering the bye with a victory. “That’s the goal: To, hopefully, go into a bye week with a win and have some momentum.”
The Titans and Ravens square off at 8:30 a.m. CDT Sunday at Wembley Stadium in London. NFL Network will televise the game.
The teams took different approaches to London: Baltimore has been in London all week. Tennessee arrived on Friday.
“That’s what comes with it when you go international, play international,” Henry said. “… Just getting adjusted. But the goal is always to win and be focused on your job and what we need to do to win. It’ll be cool to get over there -- a lot of guys haven’t been over there – to check it out and see London for the first time. I got to go back in 2018. It was a great crowd. Ought to be a great atmosphere, so it’s always fun to go international and expand the game the way the NFL’s trying to. …
“Enjoy the whole experience, but be locked in. That’s the main thing: Just stay locked in. Enjoy what London has when you have free time but stay locked in and focused on your job and the task at hand.”
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.