{"id":127316,"date":"2020-12-06T06:54:57","date_gmt":"2020-12-06T03:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/its-time-to-crown-derrick-henry-as-nfls-best-back\/"},"modified":"2020-12-06T06:54:57","modified_gmt":"2020-12-06T03:54:57","slug":"its-time-to-crown-derrick-henry-as-nfls-best-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/its-time-to-crown-derrick-henry-as-nfls-best-back\/","title":{"rendered":"#It’s time to crown Derrick Henry as NFL’s best back"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#It’s time to crown Derrick Henry as NFL’s best back<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

The Big Back has always piqued our curiosity, from Bronko Nagurski to Marion Motley to Jim Brown, among a host of others.<\/p>\n

And now, during this quarterback era, Derrick Henry has emerged as a titan.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis game<\/a> has blossomed to the point where he\u2019s emerged as not just a top running back, but one of the more lethal weapons in the entire NFL,\u201d legendary Titans Big Back Eddie George told Serby Says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Saquon [Barkley] down, Derrick Henry is my favorite guy to watch. You\u2019re a damn fool if you don\u2019t like to watch Derrick Henry run,\u201d former Giants Big Back Brandon Jacobs told Serby Says.<\/p>\n

King Henry has carried the Titans on his back the last two seasons \u2014 1,540 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns in 2019 and 1,257 yards and 12 TDs so far in 2020. He has gashed defenses for 13 100-yard games in his last 19, and is the leader in the clubhouse for a back-to-back rushing title.<\/p>\n

Giants safety Logan Ryan got to the AFC Championship game last season with Henry. Asked what makes him unique, Ryan said: \u201cI think his size obviously, his breakaway speed, his stiff-arm, you just don\u2019t see too many running backs that are 6-foot-4 and can run away from DBs at 240 pounds, there\u2019s no one else like that. Derrick\u2019s someone who always works on his game and is gonna try to get better, and he becomes better as the game goes along as he gets more touches. Like a lot of great players, he doesn\u2019t wind down, he actually gets stronger throughout the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Derrick Henry<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

George, a four-time Pro Bowler who was 6-4, 235, rushed for 10,441 career yards and 68 TDs and caught 268 passes and 10 TDs. Give Henry Gale Sayers\u2019 18 inches of daylight and beware.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s setting up his runs a lot better, he\u2019s running behind his pads, guys don\u2019t want to challenge him in the open field \u2026 and once he gets into the second and third level of the defense, he either can take it to the house or somebody\u2019s gonna pay dearly for getting in front of him,\u201d George said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis ability to cut in the open field as well, too. No second step in his cut, it\u2019s very decisive. He\u2019s added a jump cut to his repertoire, a spin, and he\u2019s become more elusive in between the tackles.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, Henry can impose his will and break your spirit.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just as deadly at his own 1-yard line,\u201d George said, \u201cas he is at the opposing defense\u2019s 1-yard line and everything in between that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jacobs was 6-4, 260 pounds when he won two Super Bowls with the Giants in the post-Tiki Barber Era and is the franchise leader with 60 rushing TDs. Henry is listed at 6-3, 247.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can look at him and tell, he\u2019s 250-plus,\u201d Jacobs said.<\/p>\n

Henry\u2019s diabolical stiff-arm was not a part of the Jacobs arsenal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used my stiff-arm one time against the Patriots in 2007 and I got every ligament in my finger torn stuck in a face mask so I stopped doing it after that, and I just started lowering my shoulder and running people over,\u201d Jacobs said.<\/p>\n

His most memorable trucking came at the start of the 2007 NFC Championship game at frigid Lambeau Field against Packers CB Charles Woodson.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was coming in full speed,\u201d Jacobs recalled. \u201cHe was the contain guy. He was out of control. I had 15 yards left still before the sideline.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jacobs had Henry\u2019s 4.5 speed and could change direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor some reason I decided to lower my shoulder and run him over,\u201d Jacobs said.<\/p>\n

He knew exactly what the reason was, and it lit a raging fire under the Giants.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted there to be one less great player on the field for the Green Bay Packers that night,\u201d Jacobs said.<\/p>\n

Former Giants GM and NFL encyclopedia Ernie Accorsi has for decades recognized the menace of The Big Back.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care if I was playing on a sandlot behind my house, tackle football with no pads, when there\u2019s a big guy running,,\u201d Accorsi told Serby Says, \u201cyou don\u2019t want to tackle him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Accorsi remembers watching the 6-1, 238-pound Motley.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got a television in 1950,\u201d Accorsi said. \u201cHe was a little more upright. People would just bounce off his chest. Paul Brown always had those kind of backs. There\u2019s nothing that demoralized a defense more than when you\u2019re running the ball on \u2018em, especially the last quarter, and you can\u2019t stop \u2018em. And the great big backs seem to get stronger the more you give \u2018em the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Accorsi places the 6-2, 228-pound Brown in a league of his own, but is thoroughly impressed with King Henry.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe plays like a halfback, even though he\u2019s the old-style big back,\u201d Accorsi said. \u201cHe can go the distance at any time, once he breaks the first line of defense, now he\u2019s in against the secondary, and he\u2019s bigger than everybody. He makes big, long touchdown runs when they have to have it to win a game. He\u2019s a great back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bobby Ramsay coached Henry at Yulee (Fla.) High School and once watched him steamroll Jackson High School for 510 rushing yards.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you fell into the trap of worrying too much about how big he is and not worrying about how fast he is,\u201d Ramsay said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe almost had to give up game-planning because every week we saw a brand new defense that a team hadn\u2019t run all year long to try to slow him down, whether it was six down linemen, whether it was five down linemen, whether it was seven down linemen, we saw six down linemen-five linebackers, and you kinda liked to see that because you\u2019re sitting there going, \u2018OK all he really has to do is hit one crease and he\u2019s gone.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

It was love at first sight for Ramsay at Henry\u2019s first practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had him in <\/p>\n

an inside run drill, and we had three pretty good defensive linemen, none of \u2019em got blocked on that play,\u201d Ramsay recalled. \u201cI remember one of \u2019em kinda hit him in the thigh, one of \u2019em hit him in the waist, one of \u2019em kinda hit him in the shoulder, and he kinda was like Optimus Prime like making his way back to the line of scrimmage.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then the next play we ran the same play and he busted it through, and myself and the offensive coordinator were standing next to each other, we had kinda looked at each other out of the side of our eye like, \u2018Yeah, there\u2019s our starter.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

College recruiters\/coaches spread lies about Alabama coach Nick Saban intending to move Henry to defensive end. Saban cleared that up emphatically in his office when Henry asked him during his first campus visit if it were true.<\/p>\n

\u201cSaban kinda starts rocking back and forth in his chair and you could tell he was upset that people were saying things that weren\u2019t true about his opinion of Derrick,\u201d Ramsay said. \u201cSome of the stuff\u2019s not printable, but I remember he kinda built up to a point, he said, \u2018There\u2019s one guy in this whole f\u2014\u2013g place that makes every decision \u2014 ME.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Henry (1,986 rushing yards and 23 rushing TDs) won the Heisman Trophy in 2015. The proud high school coach travel<\/a>s back in time when he watches King Henry\u2019s demoralizing stiff-arm in action.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of feel like at times the NFL DBs struggle with him the same way that the high school kids did,\u201d Ramsay said.<\/p>\n

Back to the Future.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#It’s time to crown Derrick Henry as NFL’s best back” The Big Back has always piqued our curiosity, from Bronko Nagurski to Marion Motley to Jim Brown, among a host of others. And now, during this quarterback era, Derrick Henry has emerged as a titan. \u201cHis game has blossomed to the point where he\u2019s emerged…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":127317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/12\/titanshenry.1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[82772,869,71586,73906],"class_list":["post-127316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-12-5-20","tag-nfl","tag-serby-says","tag-tennessee-titans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}