Titans running back Derrick Henry a big test for Giants' defense
Titans running back Derrick Henry is shown on the sidelines during an NFL game against the Colts on Oct. 31, 2021, in Indianapolis. Credit: AP/Zach Bolinger
What do LeBron James, Jim Brown, and Daenerys Targaryen all have in common?
Probably not much. Not until this week at least when, at various times over the past few days, all three have popped up in conversations as useful shorthand metaphors for the enormity of the challenge the Giants defense is about to face.
So whether you are steeped in the grainy black-and-white film history of the NFL, have an opinion on the best player in NBA history, or just like to escape into a binge of “Game of Thrones,” you get the idea.
Derrick Henry. Is. Coming.
The massive Titans running back is the centerpiece of the offense the Giants drew as their first test of their season on Sunday, and figuring out how to bring him to the ground time after time (after time) is one of the chilling nightmares that likely will keep the players and coaches squeamish right up to the point where they board the plane to leave Nashville on Sunday evening . . . assuming of course that Henry hasn’t Godzilla-ed the airport by that point.
Asked if there is a way to slow down Henry, Giants coach Brian Daboll said with a gallows laugh: “Yeah, if he’s not at the game.”
That probably won’t happen.
"There is a reason why they call Derrick Henry 'The King,'” defensive coordinator Wink Martindale said on Wednesday. “He's on the Iron Throne . . . He is like our modern-day Jim Brown. He is just that much different than anybody else who is running the ball. It's a challenge every time he touches it."
Not many Giants have a lot of experience facing the 6-3, 247-pound man-eater who led the NFL in rushing yards in both 2019 and 2020. Even while missing more than half of last season because of injuries, no one else in the NFL has had more rushing yards (6,307) or rushing touchdowns (60) since 2017.
One Giants defender was his teammate in Tennessee.
“He’s going to do what he does,” cornerback Adoree’ Jackson said. “It’s crazy. Back in the day [people would say] ‘Yeah, LeBron James is going to be LeBron James. You may be able to cool him off for like one, two, three quarters, but at the end of the day he’s still going to get his points.’ I mean, Derrick Henry, that’s the top back in the league.”
Another Giant defender just missed being his teammate at Alabama.
“I would go to the games and I would watch him play,” safety Xavier McKinney said of being recruited out of high school and having a front-row seat to Henry’s Heisman season in Tuscaloosa. “Great back.”
Defensive lineman Leonard Williams called Henry “one of the best backs of all time.”
“He’s always the guy people circle and try to prepare for, and he still happens to have 100-plus rushing games all the time,” Williams said. “This is one of those old-school stick-to-the-run type of offenses. We just have to really take out the head of the offense, which is Derrick Henry.”
That won’t be easy considering the Giants just cut one of their most experienced and physical inside linebackers in Blake Martinez, leaving them a little thin up the middle. They’re also not fully staffed on the outside where edge linebackers Kayvon Thibodeaux (knee) and Azeez Ojulari (calf) seem unlikely to play. Martindale’s magical schemes and aggressive pressures will be able to cover some of the personnel holes in the Giants’ defense when they face teams that like to throw the ball more often, but this game will be more about brawn than blitz. Henry would seem to have the advantage there.
There is one theoretical way the Giants might be able to contain Henry, though, and it’s something they have been focusing on all week.
“You have to have 11 guys,” McKinney said. “That’s one of the few backs we have in this league where you have to have the whole defense gang tackle him. You can’t really get him down one-on-one. It’s not an easy task.”
McKinney then paused and did the math in his head, comparing 11 to 1, and probably picturing the entire defense swarming Henry like a pack of hyenas taking down a wildebeest in a nature documentary. He shook his head.
“Even when you have 11 guys coming,” he said, “it’s still not easy to do.”
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
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