The five-time Pro Bowl running back is bringing much more than just explosively violent playmaking ability.
Baltimore Ravens All-Pro cornerback Marlon Humphrey knows what it is like to be on a team that won a championship with running back Derrick Henry as a main catalyst to making a run. The two were teammates in college at the University of Alabama and won a BCS national title during Henry’s Heisman Trophy-winning season in 2015.
Humphrey also knows what it is like to be on a prime contending team that had its championship hopes dashed by a Henry-led team. In 2019, the Ravens the were No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs with the best record in the league with a unanimous MVP-winning quarterback in Lamar Jackson but were upset in the divisional round by the Tennessee Titans who rode Henry to a stunning 28-12 victory.
The two prestigious Crimson Tide alumni were reunited at the NFL level when the Ravens made Henry their prized offseason acquisition in the first wave of free agency. In his first season with the team, he has not only met but exceeded all expectations when it comes to production and impact on their overall success. He finished second in the NFL in rushing yards (1,921), tied for first in rushing touchdowns (16), broke the franchise record for total touchdowns (18) and the team is undefeated when he reaches 20-plus carries and recorded 90-plus rushing yards (9-0).
Henry broke a franchise record for rushing yards in a playoff game with 186 and a pair of touchdowns in the Ravens’ win over their archrival Pittsburgh Steelers and Humphrey echoed the sentiments of every other defender on the team who is grateful not to be on the receiving end of his bludgeoning in January anymore.
“Having @KingHenry_2 is huge.” @marlon_humphrey has been impressed by his approach: pic.twitter.com/oDHMSjNw9E
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) January 15, 2025
“Having [Derrick Henry] is huge,” Humphrey said Wednesday. “He’s upset us in our stadium, and he also just put on a great performance with us, so I know it’s no fun taking those hits, because he usually brings the hits to you – the defender – so it’s great having him on the team.”
Having known each other going on a decade-plus, he has seen what a dialed-in Henry looks like and has been just as impressed with how his intense focus and composure have spread throughout the rest of the team as his incredible playmaking on the field, especially as of late now that they’re in the postseason.
“He’s always a pretty locked in guy, but seeing the urgency he takes, the approach, the locked-in-ness that I’ve seen in him over these past couple of weeks [at the] end of the season, it seems like he’s locked in on a different level,” Humphrey said. “I think that’s really helping keep the poise, keep the team … I’ve really been impressed with just how he operates. He’s a pro. He’s been that all year, but it seems like as we got closer to the postseason, closing up some of those games and this past game, it seems like his poise, his locked-in-ness went to another level.”
Humphrey doesn’t envy the job of the Buffalo Bills defenders, who will be tasked with trying to bring Henry down this Sunday when the Ravens travel to upstate New York for a highly anticipated AFC Divisional Round matchup.
“He’s definitely one-of-one, but I think the visual and what’s actually happening doesn’t really match up,” Humphrey said. “It’s like, ‘Oh, I have a perfect angle.’ Then, he gets around you.”
Conditions are expected to be frigid for this game. Still, the Ravens have the last thing an opposing defense wants to see in cold temperatures for four quarters, a punishing rushing attack led by their dynamic dual-threat quarterback and future Hall of Famer power back.
“I feel like that’s just playoff football, especially playing up north,” Jackson said. “You have to be able to run the football, especially with the cold [and] the wind. The cold really doesn’t play that part, it’s the wind really. So, sometimes you have to run that ball. It’ll play a huge part.”