The Ravens Will Regret Not Trading Derrick Henry To The Giants, Among Others

Former Ravens head coach John Harbaugh was on the prowl for an impact running back at the trade deadline. He never hid it.

He went on the record about calling Titans ownership himself about trying to land some of their top players and the Giants made it pretty clear they had a second-round pick and at least a fifth-round pick on the table for Colts star running back Jonathan Taylor. And when they pulled out of those talks because the price was so high, numerous league sources indicated the Giants had very real interest in Ravens running back Derrick Henry as well.

Because of course they did. Harbaugh had the young Giants ahead of where most expected, while Ravens rookie coach Jesse Minter's team is clearly not a contender as the rest of the league sees it.

Harbaugh saw Henry at his best for two years in Baltimore and he and his run-game guy, Greg Roman (remember him?) know what a guy like Henry can do in option looks with a young, nimble running quarterback (like New York starter JJ McCarthy). Henry’s salary was no issue at all (the Giants were pursuing numerous stars making way more money)

“It’s got to be something that is a need, that fits your financial profile, that fits your price tag,” Harbaugh said of New York’s trade pursuits ahead of the deadline. Henry (prorated $1.3M case salary) did, but the Ravens sent strong signals to the marketplace all along that they would not move the slumping 32-year-old. The national media drove that narrative home and Baltimore did nothing but make panic moves at the deadline (fleeced by the Eagles for struggling lineman Cam Jurgens) and gave a kicker away, somehow, at the same time.

For a team without it’s second-round pick in 2028 (Jurgens) and dealing fourth-round value for quarterback Jacoby Brissett and short on 2027 picks already, this tactic will prove regrettable, like most of the decisions made in The Castle the last three years. Here’s why:

Diminishing Value

Multiple general managers told us Henry carried fourth-down value and if the Ravens had marketed him as they should, and played a few teams off each other, that was the floor. Getting more was never out of the question. I asked multiple personnel execs about what they thought they could get for him in the offseason - without the heat of the playoff push spurring suitors, with Henry then 33, and especially if he continues the rapid downward spiral of this season (more on that in a minute).

“If they didn’t trade him now, they aren’t trading him,” one GM suggested. “They aren’t getting anything (of value) next year. That ship sailed.”

One personnel exec with a team that was active ahead of the deadline said: “This was the time to trade him. Not in March. He won't have a market in March”

And our pal Mark Levin, who ran the salary cap and agent administration department for the NFLPA for roughly 25 years and who knows contracts and cap as well as anyone, after studying the Ravens ugly payroll/cap situation, came to the same conclusion. Levin, who oversaw the cap and contract negotiations for the Washington Commanders before going to the NFLPA, would have been pushing his front office to trade Henry at the deadline

“His value will probably not be any higher than it is right now,” Levin pointed out on “The Daily Flock,” while explaining why he believes Lamar Jackson will be elsewhere in 2027. And, after not moving Henry, it seems clear to Levin after studying all the contract ramifications that: “I would lean probably towards keeping him (in 2027), if you don't trade him like right now.”

And ESPN reports the Ravens essentially told Henry as much ahead of the deadline.

Diminishing Returns

So what does that mean moving forward?

Well, if Jackson isn’t here the run game is cooked no matter what. The offensive line has massive issues interior and at left tackle moving forward, the move to an under-center rushing attack has been totally thwarted. The Ravens are just 13th in under-center rushes and without Jackson those carries average a pedestrian 4.1 yards/carry.

Henry is being mauled at or behind the line of scrimmage like never before – again, the line is terrible all the way around – unable to get up a head of steam to be explosive. He is averaging just 3.4 yards per carry over the last month, he has been run as much as back in the NFL despite his advanced age, this is nothing like the 5.5/rush he averaged his first two years here and at this stage of his career Henry needs others to lift him up so.

Impossible with this roster.

Rookie offensive coordinator Declan Doyle has run Henry 175 times through nine games – third-most through Week 9 for a 32-year-old RB since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger. Only Walter Payton and Otis Anderson have carried it more at that age, and that was ancient history in terms of NFL offensive philosophy. In the last six weeks Henry has run 109 times for just 388 yards (3.6 yards/carry) with just two touchdown runs and a putrid 0.67 yards before contract.

“They can keep running him into a brick wall, but he’s not going to run through it,” said an NFL exec who has advanced the Ravens this season, noting the need for them to incorporate more speed backs and different looks out of the pistol, with no ability to run inside or under center with Henry.

And as longtime NFL general manager Marty Hurney, who watches the Ravens closely for "The Daily Flock," pointed out to us on numerous occasions, "the fumbling has me a little concerned, too."

Perhaps, these are all adjustments they’ll get around to making a year too late in 2027. But Doyle seems intent on getting his 300 carries out of Henry this season, and whatever he looks like for the remainder of his career in Baltimore, the hubris of the 2026 trade deadline is quite likely to always carry a price for a rebuilding team come February

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