It's been an historic season for Derrick Henry, whose first season with the Baltimore Ravens has been a slam-dunk success so far.
In the same game earlier this year, Henry eclipsed 10,000 career rushing yards while also scoring his 100th career touchdown. Henry, who ran for his 100th career touchdown last month, is on the precipice of making even more history this month.
Henry is just 91 rushing yards shy of reaching 11,000 for his career. He will become only the 23rd player to accomplish that feat. Of the 22 players who already have, 16 are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame (Frank Gore, Adrian Peterson and LeSean McCoy currently aren't eligible for enshrinement as they have not been retired for at least five years).
The two-time league rushing champion could move significantly higher on the all-time rushing list over the final five games of the regular season. He's just 529 yards behind Steven Jackson, whose 11,438 career rushing yards is the 18th-most in league history. Henry could also pass Hall of Famers John Riggins (19th all-time with 11,352 yards) and O.J. Simpson (21st with 11,236 yards) before the season is over.
While the majority of backs with 11,000 career rushing yards are in the Hall of Fame, every eligible running back with 12,000 career rushing yards is in the Hall of Fame. When looking at it from that prism, Henry is essentially less than 1,100 yards away from cementing his future spot in Canton, Ohio.
Henry, though, probably doesn't even need to hit that milestone in order to receive a gold jacket and bronze bust one day. His body of work as it currently stands is most likely already good enough.
From a historical standpoint, Henry already has an exceptionally good case for the Hall of Fame. He's one of just nine running backs in history to have at least 10,000 rushing yards and 100 touchdown runs. Henry, who is also one of only eight players to rush for over 2,000 yards in a season, is on pace this season to join Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith as the only two players in league history to lead the NFL in rushing touchdowns on three separate occasions.
For all the success he's had so far this year, Henry is poised to end the 2024 season with a bang given how Baltimore has used him up until this point. Henry has eclipsed 20 carries in a game just five times this season, and has had only two of such games over the Ravens' last seven outings. That was by design, as the Ravens wanted Henry to be as fresh as possible for the stretch run.
"Derrick hasn't had a lot of carries, a lot of wear and tear on him this year, so I think it's set up perfectly for him to finish the year like he's capable of and what we expect out of him," Ravens running backs coach coach Willie Taggart said earlier this week. "Derrick is fresh right now, and that's great."
