Derrick Henry stepped onto the Cincinnati Bengals field just 18 yards shy of joining an elite group of NFL players with 10,000 career rushing yards.
It took the Ravens running back four drives and seven carries to become the 32nd player in NFL history to reach the milestone.
On the play that pushed him over the mark, Henry rushed for 5 yards to reach 10,003.
It was also Henry’s 501th rushing yard this season. He entered the season with 9,502 rushing yards over eight seasons with the Tennessee Titans, which featured five 1,000-yard seasons.
In the first quarter, he also scored his 100th touchdown on a 1-yard run to put the first points on the board. Overall, he’s the 14th player and ninth running back to reach the milestone and the 10th player and eighth running back to do so within nine seasons.
However, he’s the fifth player to reach both 100 touchdowns and 10,000 rushing yards in his first 125 games. He joins Pro Football Hall of Famers Jim Brown, Emmitt Smith and LaDainian Tomlinson. Adrian Peterson is the fourth.
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Prior to the Bengals game, Henry said he wasn’t focused on the milestone, calling it “window dressing” on the ultimate goal of securing the team the win. But he acknowledged how cool it was to even be in a position to be thinking about 10,000 rushing yards.
“As a kid I always wanted to play running back and make it to the NFL,” Henry said. “Like I said, for me to play this long and be able to reach that milestone that so many great ones before me reached that I idolized — it’s like a kid at a candy store where you can’t believe what’s in front of you achieving that milestone.”
It has been seven seasons since a running back reached 10,000 rushing yards. The last to do so was Marshawn Lynch with the Oakland Raiders in 2017. Smith still holds the NFL record for rushing yards at 18,355.
Henry has already made both Ravens and NFL history this season. Against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 3, he had 25 rushes for 151 yards, the most carries by a Ravens running back in the Lamar Jackson era. The next week against the Buffalo Bills, he opened the game with an 87-yard touchdown, the longest run in Ravens history.
The touchdown was Henry’s third career rushing touchdown of 85 yards or longer. He joins Chris Johnson and Lamar Miller as the only players to have three rushing touchdowns of that length or longer.
After the Bills game, Henry was tied with Tomlinson for second for the most games (13) with 150 rushing yards or more. He needs two more 150-yard games to tie Brown for the most. Henry is currently averaging 120 rushing yards per game prior to the conclusion of the Ravens game against the Bengals.
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