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Jamison Hensley, ESPN Staff Writer
OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry came off the field from a rain-soaked practice Monday when someone asked him if he wished full contact had been allowed.
“Hell yeah,” Henry replied. “But the pads will be on pretty soon.”
Henry doesn’t talk like a running back who turned 30 in January. And, after his second training camp practice with the Ravens, he said he doesn’t feel that old, either.
It’s often a challenging time for running backs when they reach his age. Over the past decade, only three players have produced 1,000 yards rushing at 30 or older: Adrian Peterson, Frank Gore and Raheem Mostert.
“That’s always going to be said when a running back gets up in age, the stigma on the position,” Henry said. “But I just focus on me being healthy, doing my job when I’m here and then let my play speak for my age.”
Baltimore signed Henry to a two-year, $16 million deal in free agency. He is coming off a season in which he recorded 68.6 rushing yards per game and 4.2 yards per carry, both of which were his lowest since 2018.
Henry made an audible “Hmm” when a reporter pointed out that Henry’s average first contact with the Tennessee Titans last season was a half-yard less than the average first contact for Ravens running backs.
No one has had a bigger workload over the past five seasons than Henry. He has led the NFL in carries four times. Only Jim Brown has topped the league in carries for more seasons (six).
“I don’t really try to worry about that,” Henry said. “It’s kind of funny. Ever since high school sometimes I got 56 [carries] in the game, 57 the next week. In college, it was 44, 46. In the NFL, it was 30, 35. I really think it’s just your mindset, how you take care of your body and not get too caught on ‘he say, she say.’ If it works and you feel good, just keep working and keep doing what you do.”
Henry, the 2020 NFL Offensive Player of the Year, will line up in the same backfield as quarterback Lamar Jackson, a two-time NFL Most Valuable Player. This will be the fifth time in NFL history that one teammate previously won multiple NFL MVPs and another was named Offensive Player of the year, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
Teammates have been impressed with the size of Henry, who is 6-foot-3, 247 pounds.
“He’s a physical specimen,” Ravens outside linebacker Odafe Oweh said. “He looks like he could play defensive end. I’m excited about what he can bring to the team. I’m just happy he’s on our side, for real.”
