Derrick Henry gives the biggest key to a Titans turnaround
For Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry, trending in the wrong direction in December is an unfamiliar feeling. For as long as Henry has been a part of the Titans organization, Tennessee has made a habit of playing their best football at the end of the season. That has been especially true since 2018 when […]
For Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry, trending in the wrong direction in December is an unfamiliar feeling.
For as long as Henry has been a part of the Titans organization, Tennessee has made a habit of playing their best football at the end of the season. That has been especially true since 2018 when the Mike Vrabel era began.
But now at 7-6 on the 2022 season, the Titans are losers of three consecutive games for the first time since October of 2018, and are facing new kind of adversity in the locker room.
So how does the team respond and avoid spiraling out of control? How can the Titans answer back to salvage their season and win the AFC South? Henry said it perfectly after the game on Sunday.
When I asked Henry about the unfamiliar feeling of trending in the wrong direction, Henry called out the team's leaders for needing to step up and bring the group back together. He firmly believed that the "Titans culture" that is so heavily talked about is built for this kind of adversity and hardship.
"I think that is leadership," Henry said about the concerning trend. "Coach (Vrabel) always says, ‘Culture is not built on when everything is going good.’ It’s built on when you’re at your worst. How is our culture going to withstand when everything is going bad?"
Henry would challenge every leader on the team, himself included, to step up and rally the team together.
"I think leadership just needs to step up. I need to step up and, you know, just rally together, stay together," Henry said. "Like I said, we've been through adversity before. This one is definitely is tough. But all you can do is just make corrections, get better and go out there and try to win the game and work throughout the week, make each other better and continue to do those things."
Henry would later explain that "stepping up" meant staying positive. With a large number of young players and rookies on the Titans' roster, it's on Henry and the veterans to lead with a positive and motivating attitude. It can be easy to get down on yourself or the team's situation, but you cannot afford to pout around or point fingers.
Kevin Byard, Jeffery Simmons, and Amani Hooker (three leaders) all expressed those same feelings when speaking to the media in the days that followed Sunday's loss.
If Tennessee is going to crawl its way back into contention, it starts with the leaders in the locker room. We are going to find out what this team is made of.
Image via George Walker IV / Tennessean.com-USA TODAY NETWORK
