Derrick Henry has been the bell cow running back for the Titans in recent seasons, but the team is taking a different approach in the wake of Henry’s move to Baltimore as a free agent this offseason.
While they moved quickly to sign Tony Pollard in March, they don’t project the former Cowboy will play a similar role to the one that Henry filled in Tennessee. Last year’s third-round pick Tyjae Spears is also on hand and head coach Brian Callahan made it clear on Tuesday that he expects both players to see plenty of time in the offense this season.
“The fun part for me is: How are we going to deploy those guys?,” Callahan said, via the team’s website. “Maybe they both play at the same time, maybe one gets hot and you let him run, maybe we just rotate back and forth. I don’t know what that’s going to look like yet. But they are both going to play quite a bit of football for us, and I don’t view either one of them as a starter or a back-up. They are both starting players to me.”
It is Callahan’s first season with the Titans, so there are a lot of questions to answer about what the team is going to look like under his command. Running back deployment will be one of the closely watched ones once they hit the field.
After the Titans added Calvin Ridley and Tyler Boyd this offseason, it seemed like 2022 first-round pick Treylon Burks might struggle to receive playing time in 2024.
While that could still end up being the case, General Manager Ran Carthon said in his Tuesday press conference that Burks has taken significant strides over the last few months heading into his third season.
“I think Treylon has really grown up,” Carthon said, via Turron Davenport of ESPN. “He sent us a picture during the offseason, this little break here, showing his new physique. He came in and he really took to heart the conversation that he had with myself and coach [Brian Callahan]. And he’s completely bought in. I’ve messaged with him throughout the offseason and I think he’s in a really good spot. And, again, we added Tyler, we added Calvin, obviously D-Hop was here. But for a young guy like that, he has vets that he can learn from.”
Carthon added that Burks has the size, speed, and explosiveness to play multiple receiver positions in Callahan’s offense. And Carthon noted that when Burks was taking some special teams reps during the offseason program, it was something he asked to do.
“So I’m expecting things from him and just his unselfishness,” Carthon said. “I know there was some talk about him taking gunner reps, but that was because he wanted to. He wants to prove that he can stay healthy and play top-level football.”
Through two seasons, Burks has caught 49 passes for 665 yards with one touchdown. In 11 games last year, he had just 16 receptions for 221 yards.
Derrick Henry turned 30 in January, the age when running backs tend to fall off the cliff.
Adrian Peterson, Frank Gore and Raheem Mostert are the only running backs in the past decade who have had a 1,000-yard season at 30 or older. Don’t bet against Henry joining them this season.
“That’s always going to be said when a running back gets up in age, the stigma on the position,” Henry said, via Jamison Hensley of ESPN. “But I just focus on me being healthy, doing my job when I’m here and then let my play speak for my age.”
Henry averaged 68.6 rushing yards per game and 4.2 yards per carry in 2023, both of which were the lowest of his career, but he again led the league in carries with 280 and had 1,167 yards. He has had 1,000 yards five of the past six seasons, gaining 937 in 2021 when he played only eight games because of an injury.
Henry has led the league in carries four times in the past five seasons and has averaged 306 carries per season in that time.
“I don’t really try to worry about that,” Henry said. “It’s kind of funny: Ever since high school, sometimes I got 56 [carries] in the game, 57 the next week. In college, it was 44, 46. In the NFL, it was 30, 35. I really think it’s just your mindset, how you take care of your body and not get too caught on ‘he say, she say.’ If it works and you feel good, just keep working and keep doing what you do.”
The Ravens haven’t had a running back with more than 300 carries since 2010 when Ray Rice had 307.
Earlier this month, we commemorated the 15th anniversary of the killing of Steve McNair. Next month, Netflix will unveil a documentary focusing on the crime.
Untold: The Murder of Air McNair debuts on August 20.
Quickly ruled a murder-suicide committed by McNair’s 20-year-old girlfriend, suspicion still lingers that it was a double execution.
Whatever it was, McNair was a victim. Dead at only 36, not long after finishing a career that saw him share league MVP honors with Peyton Manning in 2003. McNair also led the Titans to Super Bowl XXXIV, in which Tennessee nearly forced overtime against the Rams.
The Titans have some of the longest Super Bowl odds in the NFL heading into the 2024 season, but that’s not keeping quarterback Will Levis from setting big goals for the team.
Levis told CBS Sports that he is using the low expectations for him and the rest of the team as motivation for his first full season as the starter in Tennessee.
“We want to make a playoff run,” Levis said. “That’s the biggest goal for us. Obviously, every team’s goal is going to win a Super Bowl . . . but we’re going to take it one game at a time. We know we’ve got a tough schedule, and all we want to do is is play within ourselves, learn from each other, love each other, and prove a lot of people wrong. We know that there’s a lot of doubters out there that don’t think that we’re gonna be worth anything this year.”
Levis isn’t the only player who will have a hand in how the Titans fare this season, but his performance will carry more weight than that of many teammates. The Titans need Levis to take some big steps forward in his second year if any preseason doubters are going to be eating crow come January.
