Derrick Henry and the Tennessee Titans will share a football field for the first time since Henry ran through the Jacksonville Jaguars defense in January of 2024, his final game in a Titans uniform. 

The 0-3 Titans travel to the 2-1 Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, and because Henry is being asked questions about the split at his local media availability, we all get to collectively forget the actual reason and how it played out to where Derrick Henry was no longer a part of Tennessee.

The facts of how Derrick Henry left Tennessee

Henry played out the final year of his four-year, $50 million contract in the 2023 season. The Titans, who had made three consecutive playoff appearances from 2019-2021, lost the last game of the 2022 regular season to miss the postseason. In 2023, there was hope to jump back in, and then they fell flat. Ryan Tannehill and the roster started to deteriorate.

Henry was still insanely productive in a more challenging circumstance. He ran for 1,167 yards on 280 carries playing in all 17 games with 12 rushing touchdowns. He averaged 4.2 yards per carry, which tied his career low for a single season. Tennessee was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Shortly after the Titans beat Jacksonville to finish 6-11 in Mike Vrabel’s final season, Vrabel was fired as head coach. GM Ran Carthon had to figure out what direction the franchise was heading with expiring contracts for both Tannehill and Henry.

Henry had his moment in that Jaguars game. He went out to the Nissan Stadium crowd and thanked the fans, thanked the organization for the incredible run he had since being drafted in the second round in 2016. Well over 9,000 rushing yards, a ton of touchdowns, the 2,000-yard season in 2020, being on pace for another 2,000-yard campaign in 2021 when he had 937 yards in eight games before a Jones fracture in Week 8. Then all he did the very next year, fresh off that fracture, was run for 1,500-plus yards and 13 touchdowns in 2022.

Derrick Henry’s comments this week stirred up Titans fans all over again

Brian Callahan was hired as head coach in late January of 2024 and was on record saying the Titans were open to having Henry back, that players like him don’t just walk around. But the reality is more complicated, and Henry kind of made things worse in a joking way with what he told the media this week with his “they shipped me out” comment. 

Henry said the Titans never offered him an opportunity to come back after the 2023 season.

“I mean, I think it was bittersweet,” Henry said. “I think I knew the writing was on the wall, you know, throughout that season, and they were ready to move on. And, you know, no good things don’t last forever, so it was time for me to find a new home. And I knew what that home I wanted it to be, and it was here. So God is good.”

He knew the writing was on the wall, because this was a mutual situation. I think Henry isn’t saying that because he doesn’t want to admit he wanted to leave Tennessee. I get why. The Titans did not offer him a contract. That is true. But Derrick Henry wasn’t really interested in accepting a contract offer by the Titans. Also true. 

Every party involved did a great job of saying the right things publicly to “leave the door open” when both sides knew they were going in different directions.

Henry wanted to go play for a championship and continue another chapter of his career in Baltimore, where he’s done phenomenally well. At over 30 years old, he almost hit 2,000 yards again his first year with the Ravens, finishing with 1,921 rushing yards and 16 touchdowns. In 2025 he ran for 1,595 yards and 16 touchdowns. Through three games this year he has 301 rushing yards and six touchdowns.

Derrick Henry is a beast. He is a badass. He is the best running back in this era. He is a future Hall of Famer, and he continues to beat Father Time. I’m not going to bet against Henry playing a couple more years.

Were the Titans wrong? Not for letting Henry go.

Henry signed a two-year deal for $16 million to join the Ravens in the spring of 2024, the same average annual salary the Titans gave Tony Pollard. People were freaking out about that, but Pollard’s deal didn’t carry the same percentage of guarantees. Tennessee was going in a different direction.

So were the Titans wrong by not offering him a contract? No. The Ravens attempted multiple times to trade for Henry during that 2023 season. The Titans chose to The King’s farewell over football business.

Where the Titans were wrong is how they went about replacing and following up the Derrick Henry era. Everybody celebrated the Callahan hire. The Titans were going to throw the ball more with Will Levis in his second year. They had DeAndre Hopkins, signed Calvin Ridley, and brought in center Lloyd Cushenberry to run the system. Everything looked like it was going to change.

Henry is a very specific running back. The offense has to be built around him to get the most out of what he does. Tennessee wasn’t there anymore. The defense couldn’t hold up, and Henry was on the sideline for most of the second halves because the Titans were behind and couldn’t run. They had to throw to get caught back up.

Henry had two realistic destinations: the Dallas Cowboys and the Baltimore Ravens. He chose Baltimore, where he had the best chance to continue building a Hall of Fame resume. He has solidified that and is getting closer and closer to breaking some of the biggest records in NFL history.

The Titans failed not by “letting Derrick Henry walk”. They failed by every other decision they made after that. If Tennessee had offered Henry a contract, it probably would have been for less money than he wanted, and he very likely would have denied them. Then it’s awkward. So you just move on. It was a mutual, cordial split, and it should have been better for both sides. It was better for Derrick Henry. But the Titans continued to make bad decisions after that separation, and they keep stepping in it. 

They made the right call by letting Henry go and trying to have a clean break. You just can’t keep messing up after that . . . which the Titans have done.