Henry Keeps Crown as NFL Rushing King
It’s been a foregone conclusion for weeks now, but the king it is now certain that will reign for another year.
Derrick Henry is the NFL’s rushing champion for a second consecutive season.
Minnesota Vikings running back Dalvin Cook will pass on his one last opportunity to make a push in Week 17. Cook learned on Wednesday that his father, James Cook, passed away at 46 years old.
Henry currently has a career-high 1,777 yards with one game remaining, 220 more than Cook. Third on the list is Jacksonville’s James Robinson, who is 707 yards back. Robinson won’t play this weekend either.
The Tennessee Titans running back becomes the seventh player to lead the league in rushing in consecutive seasons since 1978, when the NFL went to a 16-game schedule. The last to do it was former San Diego Chargers running back LaDanian Tomlinson in 2006 and 2007.
Since 1953, nine players have led the league in consecutive seasons (Henry will be the 10th). Of them, Earl Campbell, the Oilers/Titans all-time leading rusher, led the league in three consecutive seasons (1978-1980). Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith did the same from 1991-1993. Buffalo Bills running back O.J. Simpson had two back-to-back stints (1972-1973, 1975-1976).
The common denominator for all nine: the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Each is enshrined there, and Henry now looks to be on his way.
Along the way in 2020, Henry has rushed for 100 yards or more on seven occasions and for 200 yards or more twice. A whopping 972 of his yards (54.7 percent) have come after contact. His 15 rushing touchdowns are third behind Cook and New Orleans’ Alvin Kamara, who have 16 each.
Henry always has been a guy who couldn’t care less about his stats, but his season has been nothing short of historic. The list of milestones he has reached to this point has become hard to track, and he is 223 yards away from becoming the seventh player in NFL history to reach 2,000 rushing yards in a single season.
A look at what Henry has accomplished this season to date:
• He ran for 100 yards or more in nine straight road games dating back to last season, one shy of Barry Sanders’ record of 10 (1996-1997).
• He is the first player to have more than 1,750 rushing yards and 15 rushing touchdowns since 2007.
• He is the first running back to have two 200-yard performances in a single season since former Miami Dolphins running back Jay Ajayi had three in 2016. Only four other running backs have one such performance since the start of 2018, including Cook.
• He is the first player in league history to have four games with 200-plus yards and two touchdowns. Henry had 212 yards and two touchdowns in a victory over the Houston Texans earlier this season and then had 215 and two touchdowns against Jacksonville earlier this month. He ran for 211 yards and three touchdowns in Week 17 of last season, also against Houston. His first 200-yard, two-touchdown performance was in 2018, when he ran for a single-game high 238 yards and four touchdowns against Jacksonville.
• On Sept. 27, 2020, Henry passed Lorenzo White (4,079 career rushing yards) for fourth place on the franchise’s all-time rushing list. He trails Eddie George, Campbell and Chris Johnson, who are first, second and third, respectively. Henry currently has 5,610 career rushing yards.
• Henry is third on the franchise’s single-season rushing list. Only Johnson in 2009 (2,003 yards) and Campbell in 1980 (1,934 yards) had more yards in a season.
• His 15 rushing touchdowns this season are fourth on the franchise’s all-time list. He scored 16 last season, which is his second on that list. He needs four to tie Campbell’s franchise best 19 in 1979.
• Henry scored on a 94-yard touchdown run against Houston in October, tying Johnson for the second-longest run in franchise history. Henry’s own 99-yard touchdown run in Dec. 6, 2018 against Jacksonville is the longest.
• Henry has scored two overtime touchdowns this season, becoming the first player in NFL history to produce more than one overtime touchdown run in a season. He joined LaDainian Tomlinson as the NFL’s only players with multiple career touchdown runs in overtime. Tomlinson had three.
• He registered 178 yards three rushing touchdowns against Indianapolis in November to become the fourth player in league history with three games of at least 175 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns in their first five seasons. He joined Jim Brown (five games), LaDainian Tomlinson (three) and Adrian Peterson (three).
• He scored two rushing touchdowns against the Jaguars earlier in December to pass Johnson for third place on the franchise’s rushing touchdowns list.
