It’s hard to believe this now, but once upon a time, long before he was part of the Baltimore Ravens‘ backfield, Derrick Henry was a second-stringer. It’s just hard to fathom that now, isn’t it? When the man we’d eventually refer to as The King entered the NFL, the Tennessee Titans also had DeMarco Murray on the roster.

Tennessee got 31 solid starts out of Murray, which, at that point, was all you could ask from a man who, at that time, still had some tread on the tire. Henry took over as the full-time starter during the 2018 Titans season. He has since never had a season where he didn’t produce a double-digit touchdown total.

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His 99-yard touchdown run in 2018 was the longest jaunt from scrimmage by any tailback all season. He led all NFL running backs in carries in 2019 (303), 2020 (378), 2022 (349), and 2023 (280).

He led the league in rushing yards and rushing scores in 2019 and 2020 (1,540 yards with 16 TDs and 2.027 yards with 17 TDs, respectively). He led all rushers in yards per game in 2019 (102.7) and 2020 (126.7). He also led all rushers in TDs on the ground last season (16), his first in Baltimore.

Had he run for 79 more yards, he would have posted the second 2,000-yard season of his career. Only Saquon Barkley had more. King Henry is no stranger to the end zone. One more scoring touchdown will move him past one of the greatest running backs in NFL history, while five will move him into fifth place all time.

Derrick Henry looks to move past Jim Brown and Walter Payton for fifth place on the list of the most rushing TDs in NFL history.

Henry enters the 2025-26 NFL season with 106 career rushing touchdowns. He’s tied with the late and great Jim Brown. One more trip to paydirt gives him sole possession of sixth place on the all-time rushing TDs list. As mentioned, five moves him past Walter Payton.

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Barring injury, it feels like his climb past two of the best players the game has ever seen is a matter of ‘when’, not ‘if’. He’d then be in striking distance of Adrian Peterson (120) and Marcus Allen (123), and once he moves past them, there would only be two names to conquer on history’s list: LaDanian Tomlinson (145) and Emmitt Smith (164).

Gosh! How good has this guy been?

This article originally appeared on Ravens Wire: Derrick Henry could leap past two NFL icons with one big season