Football fans and analysts drooled all summer thinking about how fun the pairing of Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry would be this season.
But did anyone think it would be this good? When asked that question last week, and whether he expected to be leading the league in rushing yet again, Henry shot back a confused look.
"If I didn't, then I wouldn't be playing," he said. "I always have high standards for myself and what I'm capable of doing."
Henry backed that up with 132 rushing yards and two touchdowns against the Washington Commanders Sunday, earning his second AFC Offensive Player of the Week honor this season.
Even one of the NFL's greatest running backs ever, Eric Dickerson, is amazed at what Henry and the Ravens are doing on the ground. Last week, USA Today’s Jarrett Bell asked the Hall of Famer who his favorite running back is in today’s game. Dickerson pointed to Henry.
"You see those DBs and you can read their minds," Dickerson, a Pro Football Hall of Famer, said. "They're like, 'Aw, hell naw! Don't put me on no highlight tape.'"
Since Jackson was drafted in 2018, Baltimore has ranked in the top three in rushing every year and finished No. 1 three times, including last season. But Henry's arrival has taken it to another level.
"Well, we've had good rushing attacks, and we've had a lot of games where we've rushed for a lot of yards. That's all great, but the difference Derrick Henry has made is pretty clear; you see it," Head Coach John Harbaugh said Monday.
"It's a different kind of rushing attack with him because of the way he runs the ball. He's just one of a kind. He's one of one. … I remember Eric Dickerson coming up, but after that, and even that, I don't know, man. He's one of one."
Here are the stats behind the Ravens' historic start:
- The 2019 Ravens posted the most single-season rushing yards in NFL history with 3,296. The 2024 Ravens are on pace for 3,491 rushing yards.
- The 2019 and 2020 Ravens averaged 5.5 yards per carry. The 2024 Ravens are averaging 5.9 yards per carry, which is the highest average in NFL history. The 1963 Cleveland Browns averaged 5.7 yards per carry.
- The Ravens are averaging 205.3 rushing yards per game so far this season. The Green Bay Packers are a distant second place at 167.2 yards per game.
- Among ball carriers with at least 50 rushes, Jackson and Henry rank No. 1 and No. 2 in the NFL in yards per carry (6.3 and 5.9, respectively).
- The Ravens are creeping up on breaking their own record of 43 straight games with at least 100 rushing yards, set from 2018-2021 (tied with the 1974-1977 Pittsburgh Steelers). Baltimore needs five more consecutive 100+ games to break the record.
- Henry is on pace for 1,995 rushing yards this season. That would rank No. 9 on the all-time single season rushing list. Dickerson's 1984 season with 2,105 yards still holds the record. Jamal Lewis holds the Ravens' record with 2,066 rushing yards in 2003.
- The Ravens became the second team in the Super Bowl era to record at least 150 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown in each of their first six games of a season, joining the 1971 Oakland Raiders.
- Henry has 704 yards rushing and nine total touchdowns while Jackson has run for 403 yards. Only one other team since at least 1948 has had one player rush for at least 400 yards and another for at least 600 yards in the first six games of a season. Joe Perry (501) and J.D. Smith (604) did it for San Francisco in 1959.
- Henry's league-best eight rushing touchdowns this season are tied with Billy Kilmer (San Francisco, 1961) for the second-most rushing touchdowns ever by a player in his first six games with a team. Only Dickerson (10 with the Los Angeles Rams in 1983) had more.
- Henry is the second player in NFL history to lead all running backs in each rushing yards per game, rushing touchdowns, and rushing yards per carry (min. 50 attempts) through six games of a season since the 1970 merger, joining Terrell Davis in 1998.
- Henry is the first player since Pro Football Hall of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson (2005) with a rushing touchdown in each of his team's first six games of a season. He is also the second player in NFL history to record a rushing touchdown in each of his first six games with a new team, joining Robert Edwards (with New England in 1998).
- Baltimore is the first team in NFL history to outrush its opponent by 100-plus rushing yards in each of the first six games of the season.
