Ravens’ Derrick Henry can break rushing record, Lamar Jackson says

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Can Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry break the NFL’s single-season rushing record?

Lamar Jackson nodded his head when posed the question.

“It’s there,” Jackson said after Wednesday’s practice. “I feel like he has a great chance of achieving that. I think he can do it. I believe he can do it.”

In his first season with the Ravens, Henry is having the best start of a decorated nine-year career. With stiff arms and explosive runs, Henry is averaging a league-best 124.7 yards rushing through seven games.

He is on pace for 2,120 yards rushing, which would eclipse Eric Dickerson’s 40-year-old record. Dickerson ran for 2,105 yards for the Rams in 1984.

“I don’t really try to think about that too much,” Henry said when asked about Dickerson’s record. “Just focus on me doing my job and being better and better every week. I don’t really try to get into the statistics of things. I focus on the team goals.”

Henry’s 873 yards rushing are the most in the first seven games of a season since DeMarco Murray had 913 in 2014. Murray finished with 1,845 yards rushing.

If Henry is able to break Dickerson’s record, he would have earned it. In Henry’s final 10 games, he will face eight run defenses that rank in the top half of the league, including the Cleveland Browns’ 15th-ranked run defense Sunday.

But Henry has proved he can defy the numbers. His 873 yards are the second most by a player 30 or older through seven games in NFL history, trailing only Walter Payton’s 875 yards in 1984.

Henry said it doesn’t matter if his age caused teams to shy away from signing him in free agency seven months ago.

“I went to the team I was supposed to go to and that I wanted to go to,” Henry said. “I can’t worry about what people say. I do what works for Derrick Henry and I’m a Baltimore Raven. I want to do the best I can to help us win each and every week.”

It was four year ago when Henry totaled 2,027 yards rushing, falling 94 yards short of Dickerson’s mark. On his current pace, Henry would become the first player in NFL history to record two 2,000-yard rushing seasons.

At 6-foot-3, 247 pounds, Henry is a major challenge to bring down for even NFL defenders. But, in an interview with ESPN, NBA star Anthony Edwards of the Minnesota Timberwolves said he thinks he can play free safety and believes he can tackle Henry.

“He’s crazy,” a smiling Henry said of Edwards, who is 6-4, 230 pounds. “I mean, everybody’s got an imagination. … We got to set up a training camp where basketball players come out here and put these pads on and see if they really can get through it.”