Armed with new contract, Ravens RB Derrick Henry won’t stop pushing forward

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Derrick Henry experienced flight delays getting into Baltimore from Dallas on Sunday evening. He didn’t get to bed until the wee hours of Monday morning. He estimated that he got about 30 minutes of sleep. Yet, when the 6 a.m. hour arrived, Henry knew there was somewhere he had to be.

Everything else — sleep, signing a hefty contract extension — could wait.

“I got in here early this morning, and I just worked out,” Henry said at a Monday afternoon news conference at the Under Armour Performance Center.

Signing 30-plus-year-old running backs to lucrative contracts is typically frowned upon in the NFL, a reflection of the physical nature of the position and the expected decline of those who play it. Yet, even on a mid-May morning, roughly two months before the start of training camp and a week before the Ravens’ organized team activities get underway, Henry, with his maniacal work ethic, showed once again why the organization has few concerns in signing him to an extension.

Extending Henry, who would have been eligible for free agency after the 2025 season without a new deal, was one of general manager Eric DeCosta’s offseason priorities.

“If you watch his work ethic, and you see the way he works on and off the field, how he takes care of his body, and then just to watch him out there, you don’t see a downside,” assistant head coach and running backs coach Willie Taggart said Monday. “He’s still getting stronger, if you ask me. … If you look at the performance he had last year — one of his better years — and that’s nine years in. That’s big time. It’s important to him. He told you guys a minute ago (that) he wants to win a Super Bowl, and I know he’s going to do everything he can to help this football team accomplish that.”

Clad in a no-sleeves, team-issued workout hoodie, Henry put pen to paper on his two-year, $30 million deal (all but $5 million guaranteed) before 8 a.m. Monday. When he did, the 31-year-old was the official recipient of the largest contract for a 30-plus-year-old running back in NFL history. He also moved closer to his stated goal of spending the rest of his career in Baltimore.

Henry was due to make $7 million in 2025 (he had already collected $1 million from an option bonus). Adding the $30 million for 2026 and 2027 essentially makes this a three-year, $37 million arrangement.

For both sides, the deal was a no-brainer. Henry flourished in his first season as a Raven, rushing for 1,921 yards, the second-highest total of his career, and scoring 18 touchdowns. He joined quarterback Lamar Jackson in forming one of the league’s most dynamic and productive duos. But his attachment to his new NFL home after he had spent the first eight years of his career in Tennessee, starring for the Titans, went beyond the on-field production.

“Coming here, everything was new, and all I wanted to do is gain my respect from my teammates and everybody in this organization,” Henry said. “Over time, as I got here, I just fell in love with everything, with the brotherhood, by the way (they) work, how they approach everything, and then get into the season (was) just like icing on the cake. I know we came up short, but it was a lot of fun, and we have a lot of great players — a lot of top players in this league, playmakers — so it’s always fun when you have guys around you that are at the top of their position and can change the game at any point.”

The Ravens are a draft-and-develop team, and they don’t often target stars on the free-agent market. But their initial two-year, $16 million deal with Henry, signed in March 2024, couldn’t have worked out much better. On the field, Henry took an already potent and explosive offense to another level. Baltimore finished first last year in offensive DVOA, total yards per game and rushing yards per game, and third in points per game.

Henry took some pressure off Jackson, who had arguably the best season of his career in 2024, and reinforced the team’s offensive identity and physical mentality. He also raised the bar for his new teammates’ preparation, professionalism and accountability. Teammates and coaches raved about how hard Henry worked during the week so he was ready to play, and how locked in he was on every detail. The simplest mistake at practice would put Henry in a foul mood that didn’t lift until he redeemed himself the following day.

“He fits our identity as an organization, and I think he fits Baltimore as a city and what the city stands for,” Taggart said. “When you always watched the Ravens play, it was always dominating and physical, and when you watch Derrick run, it’s dominating and physical. You think about our city, we’re dominating and physical, so I think he just fit everything about Baltimore and the Ravens organization. Everyone I talked to about the Ravens’ organization, before I got here and now being a part of it, it’s always been top-notch. The Ravens’ organization is one of the best in the league, and then Derrick came here, and he’s top-notch and one of the best running backs in the league.”

The extension comes when there’s still so much more Henry, a former Offensive Player of the Year and a five-time Pro Bowler, wants to accomplish. He’s long said he’s a student of the game and acknowledged how meaningful it is to have his name mentioned in the same breath as some of the league’s best all-time backs.

Henry currently ranks 19th all-time with 11,423 rushing yards. Another 1,000-yard season would put him just outside the top 10 of a list headed by longtime Dallas Cowboy Emmitt Smith, who had 18,355 career rushing yards. Henry would have to play for longer than the three years on his Ravens contract to break Smith’s mark.

Henry would pass another former Cowboy, Tony Dorsett, and move into 10th place all-time if he eclipses 1,316 rushing yards in 2025. He did that in late November of the 2024 season.

“It’s a surreal moment to be able to have that opportunity and be in that conversation,” Henry said. “God has blessed me, tremendously, and since I was 5 years old, I fell in love with this game. Playing this position, I always looked up to the great running backs who played this game at a high level, who are legends of the game, dreaming of my game being mentioned with them one day. For me to somewhat have that opportunity, it’s so surreal, and God is so good. I’ve had a lot of people throughout my life to help me get to this point.”

The ultimate team prize is also missing from Henry’s likely Hall of Fame resume, and he doesn’t shy away from that. The Ravens believed they were good enough last year to win a Super Bowl, but they were beaten, 27-25, in a mistake-filled divisional-round loss to the Buffalo Bills.

Henry maintained that it was the type of loss you never get over. You just go back to work to give yourself a better chance to win if you get the opportunity again. To that end, Henry, his mind “going crazy,” allowed himself just one week off before he returned to the gym following a season in which he had 344 touches in the regular season and 42 more in two postseason games.

The grind never rests, even on days when sleep is elusive and there’s a contract to sign.