Derrick Henry’s workload is starting to look like a warning sign for the Ravens.
Baltimore leaned on its star back whenever things got messy in his first two seasons with the team, using him to steady the offense and help keep the defense fresh. That formula helped define the Ravens’ identity. But with Lamar Jackson sidelined by an ankle injury that rookie head coach Jesse Minter called “day-to-day,” and with the offensive line in rough shape, the margin for error around Henry is shrinking fast.
The concern isn’t just that Henry is carrying a huge load. It’s that he may be getting squeezed by age, line play and a system that no longer feels as friendly to him as it once did.
Henry is 32, the age when running backs historically start to fall off, and his recent production has started to reflect that reality. Through seven weeks, he leads the NFL with 147 carries, which is second in NFL history for a 32-year-old back over that span since the 1970 merger.
Rookie coordinator Declan Doyle had already threatened to run Henry 300 times or more, something he would do for the first time in his career if it happens three years in a row, but the Ravens may need to rethink that plan.
After Sunday’s game, Henry didn’t hide his frustration.
“Got to be better,” Henry said after averaging 2.9 yards/carry Sunday. “It's not good enough.
Terrible. I'm looking at myself.
I think every man can look in the mirror, but as far as myself, I can speak on me.
“It's not good enough at all. We got to figure it out.
Everybody evaluates themselves, coaches are going to evaluate and we can go from there. It's just not good enough at all for us to be able to win games and be able to string drives together [and] have an impact on the game as far as the running game."
The numbers behind him are ugly enough to back up the tone. Baltimore’s 1.33 yards before contact is its lowest since 2010, and the team’s 4.7 yards per carry is its worst mark since 2018, before Jackson became the full-season quarterback.
Defenses are reading the Ravens’ run game better, crowding inside runs and taking away pitch plays. Minter said Monday the problem starts with what the offense is asking players to do and whether the personnel can actually handle it.
“Any time you look at specifically the run game, to me, it's - what are you asking the guys to do,” Minter said Monday. “Can they do what you're asking them to do when you go to the line, to the tight ends, to the wide receivers?
“Obviously, we lost one of our key blocking tight ends a few weeks back, and so it's like, what are we asking some of these younger guys to do? Can they do it?
Can we be good at the things that we're asking them to do? So, I think it's just a constant search for the schemes, the plays, what you're asking the guys to do.”
Henry’s overall average sits at 3.9 yards per carry, 26th in the NFL and his worst through seven games since 2019. That’s a stark drop for a player who was once a cheat code in this offense.
Baltimore averaged 5.9 yards per carry on outside zone in 2024-20425, the same stretch in which Henry piled up 632 carries, 3516 rushing yards, 32 rushing touchdowns and 5.6 yards per carry. That surge isn’t carrying over this season.
The outside-zone numbers tell the story. Henry is averaging 3.9 yards per carry, which matches the historical average for 32-year-old backs since 1970, and Baltimore is down to 4.9 yards per carry on outside zone.
Over the last three weeks, Henry has 94 yards on 27 carries on outside zone, a 3.5-yard average. Even against bad perimeter run defenses and poor outside-zone opponents, the Ravens haven’t been able to spring him.
Doyle said after Sunday’s game that the offense has to keep looking for answers.
“We (have) to search for those better answers on how people are playing us,” Doyle said after Sunday’s game when the offense failed to score again in the second half.
The under-center game was supposed to help, too. Henry ran more under center than any back in the NFL with Tennessee before joining a Baltimore offense that lived in shotgun.
Doyle made under-center work a major offseason focus, but the plan has been undermined by personnel problems. DeCosta let an All-Pro center leave in free agency, replaced him with inexpensive journeymen who got hurt, and now the Ravens don’t have much of an under-center run game.
Baltimore averaged a season-low 0.30 yards before contact Sunday, and over the last four weeks it has averaged 3.7 yards per carry on under-center runs, which ranks 27th in the NFL. The Ravens will get a chance to see whether Cam Jurgens changes anything, but there’s no guarantee he fixes the issue by himself.
Short-yardage has become its own mess. Third-and-1 has been a problem since around the middle of last season, and the Ravens are now worse there than ever.
Their third-down run conversion rate of 40.9 is their lowest since 2003, and they rank 29th in the NFL in third-and-one and fourth-and-one rushing this season. The Wild Cat package has worked at times, but the sense here is that Jackson’s bootlegs and keepers may matter more once he returns.
That leaves Baltimore with a familiar but more dangerous problem: a bad offensive line dragging down the entire operation. It hurt the offense a year ago, and it could do even more damage this season if the Ravens can’t find answers soon.
In Other News...
Ravens Collapse In Cincinnati Sparked A Bigger Problem Than One Loss
Zay Flowers gave Baltimore something to build around in Cincinnati, turning in another strong showing with 8 catches for 137 yards and a touchdown, but the rest of the afternoon unraveled around him. The Ravens second straight loss came with the defense looking overwhelmed in the second half under Jesse Minter, and the overall performance carried a far more troubling tone than a simple division setback.
Derrick Henry never found a rhythm on the ground, and the frustration around the team seemed to bleed into everything as the game slipped away. For a Ravens group that entered the week trying to steady itself, the concern now is less about one bad result and more about whether the mood and execution behind it point to something deeper. [Read more 🡒]
Trey Hendrickson Sends Ravens A Blunt Message After Another Collapse
The Ravens 35-13 loss to the Bengals was the kind of second-half unraveling that leaves a team searching for answers, especially after Baltimore had controlled the game early. Trey Hendrickson, who recently arrived in Baltimore from Cincinnati, did not hide his frustration with the way the Ravens let another lead slip away, making it clear the standard in the building has to be better than what showed up down the stretch.
Roquan Smith has already pointed to the need for more consistency, and Hendricksons own production has become part of the backdrop here as well. In his first five games with Baltimore, the pass rusher has not piled up the disruptive numbers the Ravens expected, which only adds more attention to how this group responds after a collapse like this and whether the edge rush can start matching the urgency of the message. [Read more 🡒]
Ravens Second Half Collapse Exposed A Bigger Problem Than One Loss
For much of the afternoon, the Ravens were forced to keep adjusting on the fly up front, and the offense never really found its footing. Baltimore ran 67 offensive snaps with injuries reshaping the starting line, while Derrick Henry and Justice Hill split the workload in a running game that never looked comfortable. Even so, Zay Flowers kept giving the offense a lift as the passing game became the most reliable part of the attack.
The deeper concern is how quickly one injury can ripple through everything Baltimore wants to do. Vega Ioanes exit with a knee injury forced Emery Jones Jr. into the lineup for the final stretch, and that kind of change can expose a unit already under pressure. On defense, the Ravens leaned on familiar core pieces such as Nnamdi Madubuike, Mike Green and Roquan Smith, but the edge rush group and safety rotation were also hit by injuries, leaving Baltimore with more questions than the loss itself suggested. [Read more 🡒]