Patrick Mahomes knows a thing or two about being the best at his position, so we pay attention when he describes someone else the same way.
When Mahomes was speaking with reporters on Wednesday at Arrowhead Stadium, he was asked a few questions about the Kansas City Chiefs upcoming game against the Tennessee Titans. In particular, when the challenge of facing Derrick Henry and the Titans offense came up, Mahomes stressed that it’s a significant challenge—and that he believes Henry is one of the best to ever play at his position in the National Football League.
“I think he presents a challenge for everybody. I mean, he’s one of the best running backs, to me, of all time, the way he’s able to run the football to get 20, 30, whatever, 40 carries it is and then he comes back the next week and he’s just as fresh as the week before.
Patrick Mahomes clearly has a lot of respect for Derrick Henry’s considerable talents.
“He’s a special talent who works his tail off to be who he is, and so we understand it’s gonna be a great challenge for any defense to stop him, but we’re gonna try to do the best we can to limit him as much as possible.”
Henry has led the NFL in rushing in each of the last two seasons, and he was already leading the league again this season by an incredible 260 yards over Nick Chubb at No. 2 overall. Henry is averaging over 130 rushing yards per game in 2021, an incredible feat after he’s already put up such dominant stats (and usage) in each of the last two seasons.
Since 2019, Henry has averaged 130 yards from scrimmage and over 1 touchdown per game while averaging 5.2 yards/carry. That sort of sustained production over multiple seasons is nearly impossible to do in the NFL for a running back, but Henry is motoring away at a likely win at Offensive Player of the Year again as he did last season.
While Henry has a long way to go toward reaching career milestones (he’s still only 27), there’s no doubt that we’re witnessing one of the most staggering stretches of production from a running back in NFL history, a la Terrell Davis. Henry is hoping, of course, that his own success means good things for his team, but Sunday’s game will feature many great players on the field at the same time hoping to influence the outcome.