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The New York Jets are three weeks into the 2021 season and have yet to find a victory thus far.
In their next opportunity vs the Tennessee Titans in Week 4, they’re a prohibitive underdog once again.
The Titans are a touchdown favorite, according to the latest Vegas line, and are favored by the ESPN FPI (Football Power Index) analytics with a 65.3 percent edge.
If they want to pull off the upset they’ll have to contain one of the best players in the NFL on Sunday.
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It’s Normally Very Difficult to Stop the King
Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry is a grown man.
He stands at 6-foot-3, weighs 240 pounds, and runs a 4.5 40-yard dash.
Over the last couple of years, he has gone from a really good running back to one of the best players in the entire NFL.
When asked how to stop the former All-Pro, Jets head coach Robert Saleh was speechless:
“Have you guys ever seen him in person? Wait until you guys see this one. The Titans have great conviction in running the football. He looks like an offensive lineman carrying the football.”
One player on the Jets is intimately familiar with Henry and that’s ex-Titans wide receiver, Corey Davis. They spent four seasons together from 2017 through 2020.
“It doesn’t make sense for him to be that big and run like he does.”
I did an interview with Titans guru Easton Freeze from Broadway Sports Media and when I asked him to describe Henry he called him, “a refrigerator on wheels.”
Things Just Got That Much More Difficult
Trying to tackle Henry is an immense challenge with his size, speed, and power. Most that have tried have ended up on the SportsCenter top-10 for all the wrong reasons.
Entering 2021 there were two major criticisms of his game:
Durability
Over the last three years, Henry has toted the rock 896 times for 4,626 yards and has accounted for 45 touchdowns. Those are video game numbers by any metric.
Although the natural question is how long can he sustain this level of activity? There were a lot of whispers that perhaps this would be the season that the wheels would fall off.
Well, that couldn’t be further from reality.
Henry has been electric once again to start the 2021 campaign. Through the first three weeks of the NFL season, he leads the league in rushing (353 yards and has 67 yards more than the next closest guy).
One-dimensional
While Henry has been a dominant force on the ground, he has been basically non-existent in the passing game.
Through the first five years of his career, he has caught 76 passes. That’s an average of 15.2 receptions per season.
Although through the first three weeks of the 2021 season, he has found the missing dimension to his game. Henry already has 12 receptions on the year and is on pace for 68 catches.
His previous career-high was 19 in a season, he is on par to nearly quadruple that.
Stopping Henry in any normal year is incredibly difficult, now trying to stop a back that has reached a new level? Things just got that much more difficult for the green and white on Sunday.
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