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Derrick Henry is still an elite back.


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6 minutes ago, OILERMAN said:

There was clearly a difference in Henry's actual play early in his career vs the last few years. 

 

Sure there were other factors that limited Henry the last few years with the Titans outside of Henry's control. Early on Henry was playing poorly. 

 

Henry has actually admitted it, even if the Henry homers can't

He ran soft early in his career, that along with the other flaws (pass blocking and receiving) meant that he was splitting touches early on.

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It’s also worth noting that Henry led the NFL in rushing attempts and had zero fumbles….something hasn’t happened in almost 40 years.   The last guy to do this was Gerald Riggs way back in 1985.   

Look at all those defenders chasing down a rolling tomato can!

Derrick Henry sure seems to get a lot of those "anybody could do it, perfectly blocked plays" ever since he was declared a bum by message board illuminati.    Luckiest back in history, I gue

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1 hour ago, OILERMAN said:

There was clearly a difference in Henry's actual play early in his career vs the last few years. 

 

Sure there were other factors that limited Henry the last few years with the Titans outside of Henry's control. Early on Henry was playing poorly. 

 

Henry has actually admitted it, even if the Henry homers can't

Yeah @Mythos27 has refused to recognize reality from day 1.

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Yeah that's inaccurate. Henry didn't have a problem with running soft. A guy runs soft when he is either afraid of contact or lazy and Henry has never been any of those things. He had no problems running soft at Bama, and there as plenty of examples of him running through contact well at the NFL level early on. I could pull up runs right now where he ran over people, used his stiff arm, or ran through contact. He wasn't as consistent with this yet but to call it soft is a stretch. Some of his early struggles were on him and others weren't.  His biggest problem early on was that he was not a very good gap scheme runner, particularly inside. He came from a zone system at Bama and as such, he didn't read holes quickly enough with enough consistency. Of course, this was on Henry himself.  The issue however, was compounded by the fact that we were not very good at creating running room inside so Henry wouldn't identify the hole inside (there rarely was one) and then resorted to bouncing runs outside all the time. That part was not on him.

 

The other issue however, was that he was not a very good pass-blocker particularly because he didn't know where to be and didn't understand the protection plan. This was also on him. Naturally, Murray who was much better in the passing game, got more snaps. The issues arose when it became abundantly clear that Murray was washed and his pluses in the passing game did not outweigh the threat that Henry posed as a runner. Mularkey himself has admitted that they were too slow to move on and the resident experts were also too slow to move on and as @titanruss said, they turned on Henry partly as a result of resenting being proven wrong for holding on to Murray too long.   As typical of this conversation, the actual issues are ignored while the simplistic shit is given more weight. 

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26 minutes ago, Mythos27 said:

Like I thought. All talk. No film. 

I didn't say he ran soft. Stop putting words in peoples mouth and arguing a point they didn't make. 

 

Henry, at the beginning of his career, had the same problem CJ did. He tried to bounce runs outside and hit a HR instead of being patient,  trusting his blockers, and taking what was given. Most likely because he wanted to make the most of his limited opportunities as he wasn't getting the volume he had always been accustomed to. 

 

You have argued against this from day one and have been wrong the whole time. So stop trying to act like you're some kind of film expert because you clearly aren't. 

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5 hours ago, Mythos27 said:

This is my problem with the Eddie George "talk" narrative: Henry still struggled with efficiency at various points of his career even after this supposed magical talk. These are his ypc numbers the following season in the 4 games before Mariota got benched: 2.6, 3.7, 3.9, 1.9. He also struggled with efficiency throughout most of the 2022 season when everyone started calling him a "volume back". Famously everyone started calling him washed in 2023 when he struggled with efficiency yet again.

 

If "the talk" was the magical cure all, then why did those struggle keep resurfacing? Did Henry just periodically forget Eddie's advice and start running "soft"? And why did these struggles with efficiency always seem to line up protectively with stretches during which the team was struggling at QB, with the OL, or often both? The talk narrative sounds nice in a the context of a Disney movie but it really makes no sense.

 

The reality is that like every other RB, Henry excels when the QB/OL are playing well and struggles when they aren't. Saquon went from a guy with "potential" to a 2k back in one off-season and didn't need a talk from Eddie George to do it just other good players around him. 

You know I disagree with this take, but this was laid out with genuinely excellent communication. Something is there in the space between in my opinion. Sometimes one piece of information can change an entire understanding. So maybe it wasn't just the pep talk but a new view implemented in a way he understood as replicable? 

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1 hour ago, WG53 said:

I didn't say he ran soft. Stop putting words in peoples mouth and arguing a point they didn't make. 

 

Henry, at the beginning of his career, had the same problem CJ did. He tried to bounce runs outside and hit a HR instead of being patient,  trusting his blockers, and taking what was given. Most likely because he wanted to make the most of his limited opportunities as he wasn't getting the volume he had always been accustomed to. 

 

You have argued against this from day one and have been wrong the whole time. So stop trying to act like you're some kind of film expert because you clearly aren't. 

First off, look to the posters above you for examples of people saying he ran soft. So much for me putting words in people's mouths. It seems you and them disagree on the root of Henry's issues but I bet you won't say a thing to them. And yes, early on he did bounce runs outside. I never argued that he didn't. I argued that more often than not, he was justified in doing so because there was little to no running room inside. I was right about it then, and I'm still right about it now. And btw, that issue alone does not explain the difference between what he was producing early on and what he became. The very obvious difference, I how much impact the team around him had on his production. 

 

I might not be a film expert but I'm much better at it than most of you which is why everything I've been saying for almost a decade continues to be correct while the people you're caping for continue to get it wrong. You guys talk a big game and call me all kinds of ridiculous shit but when you actually have to back shit it up with video evidence instead of rhetoric, you fall short and the reason why is because no hard evidence of what you believe actually exists. You'll posture, call me names, and act non-chalant but what you won't do is back up your words with film. We're done here. 

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1 minute ago, Mythos27 said:

So he wasn't running soft?

 

I hope I did but cannot recall. But I'm saying right now his bigger problem was bouncing things outside.

 

Eddie George literally said he was:

 

Eddie George Told Derrick Henry: "You're Running SOFT" 

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