A case for the running back: Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry proving they're worth the investment

Less than 24 hours apart, Philadelphia Eagles‘ Saquon Barkley and Baltimore Ravens‘ Derrick Henry showed why they are the best running backs in the NFL this season, slashing through and racing past defenders at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.

Barkley totaled 255 yards rushing in the Eagles’ 37-20 win at the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. With his unbelievable leaps over tacklers, Barkley ranks first in the NFL in rushing with 1,392 yards, 67 more than Henry has. And, with his staggering stiff arms, Henry leads the league with 13 touchdown runs, two more than Barkley has.

Following the Ravens’ 30-23 victory at the Los Angeles Chargers on Monday night, Henry delivered a message to Barkley: “Slow your ass down. Damn.”

The historic runs of Barkley and Henry converge at M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday when the Eagles (9-2) play at the Ravens (8-4) (4:25 p.m. ET, CBS). This marks the only season in which two players have produced over 1,300 rushing yards and 10 touchdown runs through Week 12.

Henry hopes the seasons produced by them proves how important running backs are to the game.

“We just want to go out there and do our job — do our job effectively [and] show that the position matters,” Henry said. “Hopefully, we’ve been doing that well enough to add value for the future of this position and the guys that are coming up and getting paid. It’s a great time for us to be able to have success, and hopefully, it bounces off to the other guys that are coming up and getting the opportunity to get paid.”

The two are facing each other for the third time in their careers. The first came in 2018, when Henry’s Tennessee Titans shutout Barkley’s New York Giants in Week 15, 17-0. The second was in Week 1 of the 2022 season, when Barkley scored the go-ahead 2-point conversion for the Giants to topple Henry’s Titans 21-20.

Both backs left the teams that drafted them and tested the free agency market in 2024. Barkley (three-year, $37.8 million contract) and Henry (two-year, $16 million) have proved well worth the money the Eagles and Ravens have invested into the running back position this offseason — at a time when the position was being devalued leaguewide. It would appear the pendulum is starting to swing back toward the ground attack in an NFL world of two-high safety shells and hybrid linebackers built to defend the pass.

Teams are averaging 27.1 rush attempts per game through Week 12, the most since 2009. And they’re running for 119.6 yards per game, the second most over the past 25 seasons.

Backed by quality offensive lines and commitment from their teams to pound the rock, Barkley and Henry are leading the way for two of the most physical — and successful — teams in the league.

“Teams are finding the value in running the ball to winning,” Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said. “The run game never disappeared, really. … More teams majoring in it now.”

How have Barkley and Henry impacted their respective teams?

Ravens: Quarterback Lamar Jackson can’t recall what he was doing when Baltimore signed Henry, 30, this offseason. All he remembers is being excited because of what the addition of the four-time Pro Bowl running back meant to the Baltimore offense.

Henry’s 1,325 rushing yards are already 307 more than any Ravens running back has produced since Jackson became the starter midway through the 2018 season — and there are five games remaining. Jackson is on pace for his fewest rushing attempts per game (8.6) and fewest hits taken (133) of his seven-year career.

“He just makes my job a lot easier,” Jackson said. “I can’t give him enough credit.”

Jackson added, “I always say this: ‘King Henry.’ The name just fits him well, very well.”

While Jackson had high expectations, there was uncertainty about Henry’s level of production when he arrived in Baltimore. Through eight seasons in Tennessee, Henry rushed for 9,502 yards, including his career high of 2,027 in the 2020 season.

However, he was coming off a season in Tennessee where he recorded 68.6 rushing yards per game and 4.2 yards per carry, both of which were his lowest since 2018. The Titans’ offensive line also struggled last season, and Henry’s 1.95 rushing yards before first contact ranked 35th in the NFL.

Now, Henry is on pace for 1,877 yards rushing, which would be the most ever by a player 30 or older.

“Everybody thought he was descending,” Fangio said. “They were wrong.”

Henry’s biggest impact has come inside the 20-yard line. His 13 red zone touchdowns are tied for the most of his career.

It’s the major reason the Ravens have converted 78.7% of their red zone trips into touchdowns. Over the past 25 years, there’s only one team that has finished with a higher red zone efficiency: the 2020 Green Bay Packers (80%).

“He makes our team so much better,” Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum said. “He’s everything you want in a running back.” — Jamison Hensley

Eagles: The trajectory of the Eagles season swung dramatically once they fully committed to a Barkley-led ground attack as the focal point of the offense. Philadelphia averaged 30 rushes over the first four games and went 2-2. Since then, the Eagles are averaging a league-leading 41 rushes per game and have gone 7-0.

Offensive linemen Lane Johnson, Landon Dickerson and Jordan Mailata helped lead the movement with a visit to coach Nick Sirianni’s office during the Week 5 bye, and the front’s buy-in has been evident by the precision in its execution and the punishing physicality with which it is moving people. Barkley’s 4.56 yards before contact per rush is tops among backs.

“You do what you’re supposed to do and he’s going to find an open hole,” right guard Mekhi Becton said.

Barkley has already collected four Offensive Player of the Week awards and continues to one-up himself. It seemed like he hit maximum Barkley when he reverse leap-frogged a Jacksonville Jaguars defender during a 159-yard rushing performance in Week 9. He topped that by setting franchise marks in rushing yards (255) and yards from scrimmage (302) Sunday against the Rams, which included a pair of 70-plus yard touchdown runs.

“You’re already the best running back in the world,” receiver A.J. Brown said to Barkley on the sideline Sunday night. “I think you’re the best player in the world.” — Tim McManus

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Any concern about burnout?

Ravens: Coach John Harbaugh laughs when it’s brought up.

“We didn’t bring Derrick in here to be the guy that gets the ball 30 times a game,” Harbaugh said in September. “He’s done that before. That’s really not the plan.”

Henry hasn’t reached 30 carries in a game, but his level of participation has been key to Baltimore’s success. The Ravens are 8-1 when Henry carries the ball 15 or more times and they’re 0-3 when he doesn’t.

Henry’s 221 carries are the most by a running back through 12 games in Harbaugh’s 17 seasons in Baltimore. But Henry has had more rushing attempts at this point in the season twice previously, in 2020 when he had 256 and 2022 when he had 247.

A heavy workload hasn’t affected Henry later in the season. His 624 rushing yards in regular-season games in December and January are the most in the league since 2016, his first season in the NFL.

“We’re going to try to run the ball as much as we can, and so much of running the ball has to do with how many plays you get, and getting in a rhythm, and getting an opportunity to call more plays,” Harbaugh said this week. “Derrick is our lead back, no doubt, obviously, and he only gets stronger as the game goes on. So we want to run the ball.” — Hensley

Eagles: Barkley is being used at an eye-popping rate. He is on pace for 344 carries, which would be almost 50 more than his previous career high set in 2022 (295). Likewise, his projection for total touches (386) is well above the mark of 352 he had as a rookie and again in 2022.

His usage is a frequent line of questioning to Sirianni, who notes the load management comes during the week and in the fourth quarter in comfortable wins.

“This sport is unlike any other profession. We have to do whatever we have to do to win each and every game. It’s always going to be that way so if it takes Saquon carrying the ball a bunch of times, then you’re going to have to carry it a bunch of times,” he said.

There have been a few hold-your-breath moments this season when Barkley, who has dealt with his share of injuries over his seven-year career, has been slow to get up or has looked hobbled going to the sideline. But to this point he’s remained largely healthy and says the reason he trains so hard in the offseason is to be able to endure a heavy workload during the season.

“I feel great,” Barkley said earlier this month. “I’m not worried about it so why is anyone else?” — McManus