Scouting director identifies a handful of potential landing spots for Derrick Henry
By Nick Cole
Published:
There was no questioning Derrick Henry as a college football running back.
He was durable, dependable, physical and deceptively fast once he got moving.
But he also carried the ball 406 times during the Crimson Tide’s national title run, and some critics point to the quantity of opportunities being the key factor to his Heisman Trophy season.
Now, as Henry prepares for the NFL Draft, his draft stock is a popular topic of discussion in pro football circles.
He’s big, but is he quick enough to be an effective runner at the next level?
What teams would be a good fit for Henry’s running style?
Yahoo! caught up with a scouting director, who identified the Cowboys, Jets, Patriots and Vikings as teams that may have an interest in Henry.
Here’s the full excerpt of his comments:
“He wants to bury you,” the director said. “He runs hard and straight, but he breaks tackles. Good luck with that guy, if you’re a safety. Runs upright, but he’s 6-3; you expect that. Eddie George ran upright. I am OK with that.”
The scouting director added that Henry’s big performances in big games should not go overlooked, that his fourth-quarter runs often were some of his best and that Henry in theory could work in almost any kind of offense.
“They run gap, they run man [blocking schemes],” he said. “They use inside and outside zone, old-school run game — traps, counters, stuff like that. Put him in the Panthers’ offense? My goodness.
“But I could see him in the Sean Payton [offense]. I could see him in the Patriots offense. The Jets, the Cowboys, even the Vikings, a four-minute back you finish teams off with. He has a role for sure.”
Can you imagine Henry running out the clock behind Tom Brady for a Patriots win? Running behind a loaded Dallas offensive line? What about sharing a backfield with future Hall of Famer Adrian Peterson?
The possibilities are exciting to think about.
Nick Cole is a former print journalist with several years of experience covering the SEC. Born and raised in SEC country, he has taken in the game-day experience at all 14 stadiums.
