Cover Story: Derrick Henry Is Pursuing Perfection

Running back Derrick Henry is physically and mentally striving to be his best to help push the Ravens over the top.

By: Ryan Mink

It was the first play of 11-on-11s at a Ravens training camp practice when Josh Johnson slung a pass out to Derrick Henry. The ball bounced off Henry's fingertips and was wrestled away by safety Marcus Williams, who took it the other way for a pick-six.

As the offense gave chase and the defense streamed down the field to celebrate, Henry remained face down on the turf for a few seconds, disgusted with himself.

"Oh, he was hot. He was hot," Running Backs Coach Willie Taggart said a few days later.

Taggart told him it was OK. Henry told him it wasn't. Henry asked Johnson to go to the other side of the field and run that same play. They did that over, and over, and over again – dozens of times.

Henry's pursuit of perfection has no limits. In a league that's in a hurry to discard 30-year-old running backs, it's Henry's chase that makes him the exception as he enters Year 9.

Not only is Henry a physical freak. The way he approaches the game is freakish, especially for someone so accomplished.

"It's like the damnedest thing ever. He wants to be perfect on everything. We love it," Taggart said. "He'll eventually come around, but probably the first two plays after a mistake, he's going to be ticked off."

A ticked off Henry doesn't sound like a bad thing.

"Hell yeah," Taggart said.

'AS STRONG AS HE'S EVER BEEN'

Henry's days during Ravens training camp start with a 5:30 a.m. wakeup, even though team lift at the Under Armour Performance Center doesn't start until 7:30. He gets there early.

Henry has always been a physical marvel, dating back to when he dominated kids in Yulee, Fla., not far outside Jacksonville. But at 30 years old, he's far more fit now – perhaps the fittest of his NFL career.

Henry's offseason trainer for the past eight years has been former NBA player Melvin Sanders, whose SandersFit Performance Center in Dallas has become home to some of the top athletes in the country.

During the offseason, Henry trains there twice a day, five days a week. They go for an intense hour and a half each morning, then come back for another session at 4 p.m.

His workouts often include sprints on a 100-yard hill and hammer curls of 80-pound dumbbells. He has leg day three times a week, where he does Bulgarian split squats with 120-pound dumbbells.

"I just love working out, staying healthy," Henry said. "Working out is one of my hobbies, so it just comes natural."

Even though he works with athletes such as Micah Parsons, Von Miller, Dak Prescott, DeAndre Hopkins, Victor Wembanyama and many more, Sanders said Henry is "one of one."

"He's the most consistent. He just doesn't skip," Sanders said. "It's relentless pursuit of perfection. He just wants to be great. He wants to be the best."

Sanders said he and Henry had a talk three years ago about anti-aging. That's the commitment that they made together, to make Henry the Benjamin Button of the NFL through the work they put in. Henry gets some kind of therapy (red light, sauna, hyperbaric oxygen chamber) every day.

"I'm not joking. I'm not hyping it up. I think he's better right now than he was in year four and five," Sanders said.

"He's a lot stronger now. He's a lot more mobile. He's able to move better. His lateral quickness is better. He's just a stronger athlete now. I can literally show you videos from like 2019 and you'd be like, 'Holy [crap].'

Henry reportedly spends nearly a quarter of a million dollars every year on body maintenance, per his financial adviser. He has his own chef, who abides by a strict diet free of fried foods, sugars, gluten, and more.

After Henry's morning lift at the Under Armour Performance Center during training camp, he sits down for a breakfast bowl consisting only of avocado, spinach, and kale.

"That sounds terrible. I feel bad for him," fellow running back Justice Hill said with a laugh. "I'm over here eating my eggs, my oatmeal, and stuff."

Henry's standard lunch is chicken and rice, then he eats a full dinner at around 6:45. During the season, when he's not putting in such physically draining practices, Henry abstains from eating until 4 or 5 p.m. He started that routine in 2022 and will continue it this season.

"Before I was eating whatever I wanted – chicken wings, pizza – anything, and I was like, 'Dang, that's not going to sustain,'" Henry said. "So, I just challenged myself to try to see if I could do it, and then once I got used to it, it became easy, and now my body feels great. Just seeing how my body responded to it and the routine and the diet – I love it – and it's something I'll probably keep doing the rest of my life."

Sustainability for a running back is the big question, especially one with as many carries as Henry has on his resume. Eight running backs landed with new teams before Henry agreed to terms with Baltimore. Henry is older than any of them. He's the oldest pure running back to ink a deal this offseason.

During Henry's introductory press conference in Baltimore, he was asked about those who doubt he can still play at a high level at his age. "Tell them to keep watching," he said.

But doubters don't fuel Henry. He's not out to prove anything about his age or longevity.

"I know what I'm capable of, and I think that as long as I put the work in, the work will always show," Henry said. "Everybody can have something to say; that's just life, that's every day. But let your work talk because talk is cheap."

'ALL BUSINESS, 24-7'

There are conflicting accounts about how close the Ravens and Titans were to pulling off a trade for Henry to come to Baltimore at last year's deadline, but there's no doubt that Henry knew the writing was on the wall when he was set to become a free agent.

Before he left Tennessee, the place where he became a star over eight years of his career, Henry left one final impression. In the regular-season finale against the Jaguars, Henry rumbled for a season-high 153 yards, including a 69-yard run in which he hit 21.68 mph – tied with Tyreek Hill for the seventh-fastest top speed any ball carrier recorded last season.

Too slow? Yeah right.

After the Titans' win, Henry went to the center of the field and grabbed a microphone. He thanked everyone from "Bob with the avocados" to the cleaning staff of Lyncoya, Johnny and Leroy, for "cleaning our locker when it smells like the Nashville Zoo."

"Titans fans, I just want to say thank you for the greatest eight years of my life," Henry said before jogging off the field to "Hen-ry" chants.

Uprooting to join a new team is never easy, especially when you have a three-month old daughter at home. The Henry family also moved to the Dallas area this offseason, only to be surprised when the Cowboys showed him no interest in free agency.

But Henry called it a breath of fresh air to be in Baltimore, and the Ravens have been thrilled with their addition.

After one of the team's first OTA practices, Henry wasn't pleased with his performance and texted Taggart at around 11 p.m. with questions. If he has a bad day, Henry texts Taggart to apologize and tell him he'll be better.

"I constantly get random text messages from Derrick wanting to know how to run a certain play or if he did it right," Taggart said. "To me, that says a lot about who he is and where he's trying to go.

"He's an awesome individual. Just to see how he's come here and fit in with our football team like it's nothing, it's like he's been here for a while. He doesn't want to come here and be a prima-donna or anything like that. He just wants to do like everyone else and get better and help our football team win a championship."

Even though he's entering Year 9, Henry feels more like a rookie in the Ravens' new system, which will feature more runs out of the shotgun formation than the single-back alignments he was so used to in Tennessee. He's asking a ton of questions in meetings, which has made it easier for his younger teammates to pipe up too.

"Derrick, he's all business, 24-7," Hill said. "I mean he obviously has a fun side to him, but when he comes to work, he comes to work. He'll make a mistake and be mad the whole rest of the day."

Henry said that mentality has always been there. He was recently talking to somebody from his youth about how when he played a video game or basketball in the street with his cousin, he hated to lose.

"I wouldn't say I was sore loser. I just didn't know how to handle it. The older you get, you kind of mature and you understand it, but it still sucks," Henry said.

Henry doesn't just expect perfection from himself. When Taggart messes up a turn of phrase or stumbles over his words, Henry is the first to call him out in the meeting room. Even though he's a quiet guy until you get to know him, Taggart and Hill both called Henry the ringleader of the jokes.

Henry has the most career rushing yards of any active NFL player (9,502). With another 1,000-yard season, he'll surpass former Titans legend Eddie George, who gave him career-changing advice in 2018 (Henry's third season) to start running like a big back. A couple of months later, he became "King Henry" when he ripped off a 99-yard touchdown run on national TV, stiff-arming three Jaguars defenders along the way.

After being on the other end of those stiff-arms, including in the 2019 playoffs, the Ravens can't wait to see it in purple and black. Hill said Henry bounced a run outside during practice on Tuesday and cornerback Brandon Stephens was out there waiting for him. Hill was salivating.

"All I could think of was the Josh Norman clips and all the other clips of all the corners trying to run him down," Hill said. "I was like, 'You should have put that arm up just to let him know!' It's going to be crazy to see that in person.

"I didn't know somebody that big could move that fast. Literally, he can hit 21 miles an hour in three steps. That's just freakish to see."

The size, the speed, the power are all part of what make Henry a threat that defensive coordinators will struggle to stop – even at 30 years old. But they aren't what make Henry who he is. Age can't touch what drives Henry.

"I think there's been plenty people who have been blessed with physical attributes and incredible talent," Henry said. "But I think the willingness to put the work in, no matter where you are in life, if you're at your lowest of the low or the highest of the high, continue to keep that same drive, continue to want to get better at your game, no matter where you are, and I think that's what makes greatness great. That's the one where the elite separate themselves from the average.

"I just try to keep that same mindset, no matter where in life, just keep wanting to get better, keep working like you're just arriving and you haven't done anything. Just try to keep that mindset year after year and see where it takes you."